Leach's Storm-Petrels (Hydrobates leucorhous) are burrow-nesting seabirds that breed on coastal islands throughout much of the North Atlantic, with most of the world's population breeding in Atlantic Canada. Population declines in the past 20-30 years have resulted in the species being uplisted to "Vulnerable" on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species. One of the species' most well-studied colonies is on Kent Island, New Brunswick in the Bay of Fundy. To determine if this colony has faced declines over a similar timescale, census work was conducted in June and July of 2000/2001 and 2018. Forty-one east-west transects in 2000/2001 (516 plots) and 56 east to west transects in 2018 (678 plots) were established every 50 m along the length of the island, which were censused with 10 m² plots. Population estimates were calculated by extrapolating mean occupied burrow density over the area of suitable nesting habitat on the island. Additionally, habitat characteristics and predator presence were recorded within each plot, and classification and regression tree (CART) analysis was used to determine which environmental factors affected burrow densities and occupancy rate. The estimated number of breeding pairs for the entire island in 2018 was 21,643 (CI 16,942-26,343) and has declined at an annual rate of-1.79% (CI-3.28% to-0.25%) since 2000/2001 (29,416 CI 23,015-35,817 pairs), though population trends varied across the island with forested habitat experiencing a large decline and the open habitat experiencing a marginal increase. CART models revealed that occupied burrow densities were highest in areas dominated by ferns or shrub/bramble that had no signs of forest regrowth, and had low gull nesting densities. Our results suggest that Leach's Storm-Petrels are declining at the southern extent of their range at similar rates exhibited at northern colonies, especially in forested habitat where habitat change may be influencing nest-site use. Déclin de la reproduction de la population et associations avec l'utilisation des sites de nidification des pétrels cul-blanc sur Kent Island, dans le Nouveau-Brunswick, de 2001 à 2018 RÉSUMÉ. Les pétrels cul-blanc (Hydrobates leucorhous) sont des oiseaux marins nichant dans des terriers, qui se reproduisent sur les îles côtières le long d'une grande partie de la côte nord-Atlantique, principalement le long de la côte Atlantique du Canada. Leur population a décliné au cours de 20 à 30 dernières années, de sorte que cette espèce est désormais classée comme « vulnérable » sur la Liste rouge des espèces menacées de Union Internationale pour la Conservation de la Nature. L'une des colonies les plus étudiées de cette espèce habite Kent Island, dans le Nouveau-Brunswick, dans la baie de Fundy. Pour déterminer si cette colonie a décliné au cours de la même période, un recensement a été effectué en juin et juillet 2000/2001 et 2018. Quarante-et-un transects est-ouest en 2000/2001 (516 parcelles) et 56 transects est-ouest en 2018 (678 parcelles) é...

During 2021-22 High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza (HPAI) killed thousands of wild birds across Europe and North America, suggesting a change in infection dynamics and a shift to new hosts, including seabirds. Northern Gannets (Morus bassanus) appeared especially severely impacted, but limited understanding of how the virus spread across the metapopulation, or the demographic consequences of mass mortality limit our understanding of its severity. Accordingly, we collate information on HPAIV outbreaks across most North Atlantic gannet colonies and for the largest colony (Bass Rock, UK), provide impacts on population size, breeding success, adult survival, and preliminary results on serology. Unusually high numbers of dead gannets were first noted in Iceland during April 2022. Outbreaks in May occurred in many Scottish colonies, followed by colonies in Canada, Germany and Norway. By the end of June, outbreaks had occurred in five Canadian colonies and in the Channel Islands. Outbreaks in 12 UK and Ireland colonies appeared to follow a clockwise pattern with the last infected colonies recorded in late August/September. Unusually high mortality was recorded at 40 colonies (75% of global total colonies). Dead birds testing positive for HPAIV H5N1 were associated with 58% of these colonies. At Bass Rock, the number of occupied sites decreased by at least 71%, breeding success declined by ~66% compared to the long-term UK mean and adult survival between 2021 and 2022 was 42% lower than the preceding 10-year average. Serological investigation detected antibodies specific to H5 in apparently healthy birds indicating that some gannets recover from HPAIV infection. Further, most of these recovered birds had black irises, suggestive of a phenotypic indicator of previous infection. Untangling the impacts of HPAIV infection from other key pressures faced by seabirds is key to establishing effective conservation strategies for threatened seabird populations, HPAIV being a novel and pandemic threat.

Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus) colonies near the species’ southernmost limits are experiencing plateaued or declining population growth and prolonged poor productivity. These trends have been linked to reductions in the availability of the species’ key prey, the Atlantic mackerel (Scomber scombrus). Declines in mackerel availability have been associated with warming ocean temperatures and over-fishing. Here, we assessed the influence of prey availability, abundance, and sea surface temperature (SST) during the breeding season on Northern Gannet reproductive success over a multi-decadal time span at their southernmost colony at Cape St. Mary's, NL, Canada. We demonstrate that warming SST affects reproductive success differently in early vs. late chick-rearing, but that overall, declining mackerel availability (landings and biomass) due to warming SST and over-exploitation has resulted in poor productivity of Northern Gannets at their southernmost limit. Our study is consistent with previous findings in other colonies in Atlantic Canada and France, and contrasts with findings in more northern colonies where mackerel population increases and range expansion are coinciding with gannet population growth. This implies that warming SST is having opposing influences on Northern Gannets and mackerel at the different extremes of the gannets’ breeding range.

Consistent individual differences in behavior, commonly termed animal personality, are a widespread phenomenon across taxa that have important consequences for fitness, natural selection, and trophic interactions. Animal personality research may prove useful in several conservation contexts, but which contexts remains to be determined. We conducted a structured literature review of 654 studies identified by combining search terms for animal personality and various conservation subfields. We scored the relevance of personality and conservation issues for each study to identify which studies meaningfully integrated the 2 fields as opposed to surface‐level connections or vague allusions. We found a taxonomic bias toward mammals (29% of all studies). Very few amphibian or reptile studies applied personality research to conservation issues (6% each). Climate change (21%), invasive species (15%), and captive breeding and reintroduction (13%) were the most abundant conservation subfields that occurred in our search, though a substantial proportion of these papers weakly integrated conservation and animal personality (climate change 54%, invasive species 51%, captive breeding and reintroduction 40%). Based on our results, we recommend that researchers strive for consistent and broadly applicable terminology when describing consistent behavioral differences to minimize confusion and improve the searchability of research. We identify several gaps in the literature that appear to be promising and fruitful avenues for future research, such as disease transmission as a function of sociability or exploration as a driver of space use in protected areas. Practitioners can begin informing future conservation efforts with knowledge gained from animal personality research.

Spatial planning for marine areas of multi-species conservation concern requires in-depth assessment of the distribution of predators and their prey. Northern Gannets Morus bassanus are generalist predators that predate several different forage fishes depending on their availability. In the western North Atlantic, gannets employ different dive tactics while in pursuit of different prey types, performing deep, prolonged U-shaped dives when foraging on capelin (Mallotus villosus), and rapid, shallow, V-shaped dives when foraging on larger pelagic fishes. Therefore, much can be inferred about the distribution and abundance of key forage fishes by assessing the foraging behaviour and space-use of gannets. In this study, we aimed to quantify space-use and to determine areas of suitable foraging habitat for gannets in pursuit of different prey types using habitat suitability models and kernel density utilization distributions. We deployed 25 GPS/Time-depth recorder devices on parental Northern Gannets at Cape St. Mary’s, Newfoundland, Canada from 2019 to 2021. To assess the influence of environmental variables on gannets foraging for different prey types, we constructed three different habitat suitability models: a U-shaped dive model, and two V-shaped dive models (early and late chick-rearing). Suitable foraging habitat for capelin, deduced by the U-shaped dive model, was defined by coastal, shallow waters with flat relief and sea surface temperatures (SST) of 11–15° C. Suitable habitat for early V-shaped dives was defined by shallow and coastal waters with steep slope and SST of 12–15°C and ~18°C, likely reflecting the variability in environmental preferences of different prey species captured when performing V-shaped dives. Suitable habitat for late V-shaped dives was defined by shallow coastal waters (<100m depth), as well as waters deeper than 200 m, and by SST greater than 16°C. We show that space-use by gannets can vary both within and between years depending on environmental conditions and the prey they are searching for, with consequences for the extent of potential interaction with anthropogenic activities. Further, we suggest regions defined as suitable for U-shaped dives are likely to be critical habitat of multi-species conservation concern, as these regions are likely to represent consistent capelin spawning habitat.