Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences· 2026Q1
How volant seabirds benefit from sub-surface predators during multi-predator feeding aggregations
- 2citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2026year
Short summary
Volant seabirds gain significant hunting advantages from associating with sub-surface predators, which actively herd prey to the surface, aid in prey detection, break up prey schools, provide access to immobilized prey, and overload prey's senses.
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Key points
- Sub-surface predators actively herd prey towards the surface, benefiting volant seabirds.
- Predator associations improve seabird prey detection through local enhancement.
- Sub-surface predators reduce prey cohesion and provide access to immobilized prey.
- The attentional overload of prey by predators also aids seabirds.
- These predator-prey interactions may influence seabird breeding site selection.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Multi-predator feeding aggregations are common in marine ecosystems and frequently involve seabirds. Often labelled opportunistic 'scroungers', volant seabirds derive diverse benefits from the association with sub-surface predators (such as cetaceans, pinnipeds, Teleosts) which can significantly enhance their hunting performance. In this opinion piece, we outline the major mechanisms through which sub-surface predators benefit volant seabirds, based on recent quantitative evidence and hypotheses that warrant further research. The mechanisms we identified are: herding prey to the surface, prey detection (local enhancement), reduction of prey cohesion, access to immobilized prey and the attentional overload of prey. Furthermore, we discuss potential interactions between these mechanisms and mechanism-based predictions which can be tested in the field. We propose that the associations with sub-surface predators are ecologically relevant to the extent that they may influence selection breeding sites. We conclude by discussing methodological advancements that have the possibility to further research in this field and go over open questions they might help to answer in the future. This article is part of the theme issue 'Multi-predator feeding aggregations in the pelagic waters'.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences, 2026 · DOI ↗
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