Increasing and Expanding Populations of Breeding Northern Fulmars in Atlantic Canada

Abstract

-During the past 200 years, the breeding range of the Northern Fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis) has expanded dramatically in the eastern North Atlantic. In contrast, the establishment of breeding colonies of Northern Fulmars in the western North Atlantic has been a relatively recent occurrence, limited largely to southwest Greenland and Atlantic Canada. Northern Fulmars prospected at a number of locations in Atlantic Canada during the 1950s and 1960s, and breeding was confirmed at four locations in the region in the 1970s. However, no comprehensive estimate of breeding numbers has been undertaken in Atlantic Canada since these initial records were made. This paper documents new breeding and prospecting locations of Northern Fulmars at Gull and Ship islands and Cape St. Mary's, Newfoundland, Corossol Island, Quebec, and at Columbier and St. Pierre islands in St. Pierre et Miquelon. Estimates of the breeding populations at these and previously known breeding locations at Outer Gannet and the Gannet Islands, Labrador, and at Funk, Baccalieu and Great islands, Newfoundland, are presented and integrated in an Atlantic Canadian synthesis. Received 29January 1999, accepted 27July 1999.