Feeding association between seabirds and killer whales, Orcinus orca, around subantarctic Crozet Islands

Abstract

Twenty-nine observations of killer whale (Orcinus orca) pods and associated bird flocks were made from March 1982 to February 1983 from the coast of Possession Island (Crozet Archipelago). Coastal foraging birds, such as giant petrels (Macronectes sp.), Cape pigeon (Daption capense), and kelp gull (Larus dominicanus), are more often associated with feeding pods than with nonfeeding ones, while pelagic species like the white-chinned petrel (Procellaria aequinoctialis) may deliberately follow the whales and wait for floating offal. The black-browed albatross (Diomedea melanophrys), which is somewhat intermediate between coastal and pelagic birds, shows components of both strategies.