Abstract:
Siblicide in nestling South Polar Skuas was investigated at Cape Bird. Skua nests were located and monitored (112 in the 86-87 season, 165 in the 87-88 season and 173 in the 88-89 season). Their locations were mapped and each nest was visited every other day to determine its status. The number of eggs laid, egg loss, number of hatched eggs and chick survival rate was measured. Continuous observations of any skua nest was not attempted but most of those nests that lost a chick probably did so because of interactions between the chicks. Samples of infertile eggs and naturally killed adults were collected to begin preliminary work on the prevalience of pesticide residues in skuas.
