Abstract

The parasitic tick Ixodes uriae was recorded from Brunnich’s guillemots (Uria lomvia) at two colonies on Spitsbergen, the principal island in the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard. Six Brunnich’s guillemots from 30 studied at the Ossian Sars seabird colony were found to be parasitized. A tick was also collected from below the larger Fuglehuken colony. However, ticks were not seen on Brunnich’s guillemots examined at the smaller Krossfjorden colony, and neither were they observed in two black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) colonies (Blomstrandhalvoya and Krykkjefjellet). It is suggested that either the tick has only recently been established in Svalbard or the population has increased from a low level, and has consequently become visible to small-scale sampling studies. Implications for the seabird population of the northern Barents Sea are discussed.

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