State of knowledge of Pantropical Boobies (Sulidae) in Chilean oceanic islands and first record of the Brown Booby Sula leucogaster in Easter Island

Indexación: Web of Science; Scielo.We present a review of the current state of knowledge of the Pantropical Boobies, namely: the Red-footed Booby (Sula sula), the Brown Booby (S. leucogaster) and the Masked Booby (S. dactylatra) throughout the Chilean oceanic islands. The lack of information on this group means that it is not possible to accurately determine the current status of these species in Chilean waters. It is thus imperative to increase monitoring effort and develop research projects in order to fill the knowledge gaps for these species in particular and insular avifauna in general. Finally, the first documented record of Brown Booby in Chile is reported.De acuerdo con Ainley (1980), 9 de las 156 familias de aves del mundo están especializadas como aves marinas. Dentro de éstas, se encuentra la familia Sulidae, que comprende los géneros Sula (piqueros) y Morus (alcatraces), pertenecientes a un orden ancestral que probablemente se originó hace más de 60 millones de años. En el género Sula, se encuentra un grupo de piqueros denominados piqueros pantropicales, que incluyen al piquero café (Sula leucogaster), al piquero blanco (S. dactylatra) y al piquero de patas rojas (S. sula) (Carboneras 1992). Estas especies, de amplia distribución en zonas tropicales y correlacionadas con la distribución de presas como peces voladores (Murphy 1936), se han adaptado a vivir en ambientes similares y poseen distribuciones e historias de vida paralelas (Carboneras 1992). El estado del conocimiento de la ornitofauna de las islas oceánicas chilenas es escaso, aun cuando las especies que habitan estas islas son relativamente conocidas a nivel mundial, se mantiene lo indicado por Schlatter (1984) hace casi 3 décadas: se conoce muy poco a nivel local sobre su abundancia relativa, biología y estado actual, especialmente en aquellas islas de más difícil acceso. Schlatter (1987) hizo un diagnóstico de esta problemática indicando que el estado ecológico de las islas es desalentador. Por lo anterior, el objetivo del presente trabajo fue determinar el estado de conocimiento de los piqueros pantropicales que habitan en las islas oceánicas de Chile.http://ref.scielo.org/nqrvn

Visual and passive acoustic observations of blue whale trios from two distinct populations

© The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Schall, E., Di Iorio, L., Berchok, C., Filun, D., Bedrinana-Romano, L., Buchan, S. J., Van Opzeeland, I., Sears, R., & Hucke-Gaete, R. Visual and passive acoustic observations of blue whale trios from two distinct populations. Marine Mammal Science, (2019): 1-10, doi:10.1111/mms.12643.Blue whale populations from both hemispheres are thought to undertake annual migrations between high latitude feeding grounds and low latitude breeding grounds (Mackintosh, 1966). For individuals of some populations these predetermined movements to and from wintering areas where calving occurs have been confirmed through photo‐identification, satellite‐tracking, and passive acoustic monitoring (Burtenshaw et al., 2004; Mate, Lagerquist, & Calambokidis, 1999; Sears & Perrin, 2002; Stafford, Nieukirk, & Fox, 1999a). However, for many blue whale populations no clear migratory behavior has been reported and locations of respective breeding grounds remain unclear (e.g., Hucke‐Gaete, Osman, Moreno, Findlay, & Ljungblad, 2004; Samaran et al., 2013; Stafford, Chapp, Bohnenstiel, & Tolstoy, 2011; Thomisch et al., 2016). On feeding grounds in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and along the coast of California, blue whales have been observed to form female–male pairs during summer, which can remain stable up to over several weeks, with the number of pairs increasing towards the end of summer (Sears & Perrin, 2002; Calambokidis, unpublished data;1 RS, unpublished data). These pairs are sometimes joined by a second male, forming a blue whale trio, which often is observed to engage in surface active behaviors lasting several minutes (Sears & Perrin, 2002; RS, unpublished data). The formation of blue whale trios is probably related to reproductive competition between male escorts and female choice (RS, unpublished data). Blue whale males produce population‐specific songs likely functioning as reproductive advertisement (Edds‐Walton, 1997; Oleson et al. 2007a; Stafford, Fox, & Clark, 1998). Several studies have reported song year‐round in low‐, mid‐, and high‐latitude waters, frequently with high song production rates during summer on the feeding grounds (e.g., Barlow et al., 2018; Buchan, Stafford, & Hucke‐Gaete, 2015; Samaran, Adam, & Guinett, 2010; Širović et al., 2004; Stafford, Nieukirk, & Fox, 1999b; Thomisch et al., 2016). Therefore, breeding activities in blue whales may be more opportunistic, i.e., not restricted to the breeding season or to a specific habitat.ES thanks Prof. Dr. Per J. Palsbøll for the supervision of the initial Master research project, the Marco Polo fund, and the University Groningen for covering travel expenses. We thank the Melimoyu Ecosystem Research Institute, SNP Patagonia Sur, and the company Teledyne Reson for partially funding the acoustic data collection in southern Chile. RHG is thankful to WWF‐Germany/Chile for partially funding fieldwork through grants to Centro Ballena Azul. CLB thanks the team of the Mingan Island Cetacean Study for their logistical support of boats and lodging, access to the North Atlantic blue whale database, and field assistance; Yvon Bélanger for opening his home to her and RS's field crews; for financial support from the National Science Foundation (Graduate Fellowship), National Defense Industrial Association, American Museum of Natural History (Lerner Gray Fund for Marine Research Grant), Penn State Applied Research Laboratory, and private donors Jeff and Lynn Kraus; and graduate advisors at Penn State University David L. Bradley, Thomas B. Gabrielson, and Diana McCammon. LDI thanks the Croisières du Grand Héron and Center Mériscope for allowing and supporting fieldwork, the Animal Behavior Department of the University of Zurich (Switzerland), the Bioacoustics Research Program at Cornell University (USA) and Prof. M. Manser and C. W. Clark for supervising LDI's Ph.D. The work was supported by grants to LDI for her PhD from the Forschungskommission der Universität Zürich, Züricher Tierschutz, Basler Stiftung für Biologische Forschung, SCNAT, Zangger‐Weber‐Stiftung, SSVA. SJB thanks the Center for Oceanographic Research COPAS Sur‐Austral, CONICYT PIA PFB31, the Office of Naval Research Global (awards N62909‐16‐2214 and N00014‐17‐2606), and a grant to the Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Zonas Áridas from Programa Regional CONICYT R16A10003 for support during manuscript writing. We would like to thank the field crews (F. Viddi, J. Ruiz, A. Carpentier, M. Lessard, A. Liebschner, C. Ramp, S. Angel, K. Aucrenaz, T. Doniol‐Valcroze, J. LeBreus, B. Kot, and J. Puschock) for their immense commitment to blue whale research

Inter-annual decrease in pulse rate and peak frequency of Southeast Pacific blue whale song types

© The Author(s), 2020. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Malige, F., Patris, J., Buchan, S. J., Stafford, K. M., Shabangu, F., Findlay, K., Hucke-Gaete, R., Neira, S., Clark, C. W., & Glotin, H. Inter-annual decrease in pulse rate and peak frequency of Southeast Pacific blue whale song types. Scientific Reports, 10(1), (2020): 8121, doi:10.1038/s41598-020-64613-0.A decrease in the frequency of two southeast Pacific blue whale song types was examined over decades, using acoustic data from several different sources in the eastern Pacific Ocean ranging between the Equator and Chilean Patagonia. The pulse rate of the song units as well as their peak frequency were measured using two different methods (summed auto-correlation and Fourier transform). The sources of error associated with each measurement were assessed. There was a linear decline in both parameters for the more common song type (southeast Pacific song type n.2) between 1997 to 2017. An abbreviated analysis, also showed a frequency decline in the scarcer southeast Pacific song type n.1 between 1970 to 2014, revealing that both song types are declining at similar rates. We discussed the use of measuring both pulse rate and peak frequency to examine the frequency decline. Finally, a comparison of the rates of frequency decline with other song types reported in the literature and a discussion on the reasons of the frequency shift are presented.The authors thank the help of Explorasub diving center (Chile), Agrupación turística Chañaral de Aceituno (Chile), ONG Eutropia (Chile), Valparaiso university (Chile), the international institutions and research programs CTBTO, IWC, BRILAM STIC AmSud 17-STIC-01. S.J.B. thanks support from the Center for Oceanographic Research COPAS Sur-Austral, CONICYT PIA PFB31, Biology Department of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Office of Naval Research Global (awards N62909-16-2214 and N00014-17-2606), and a grant to the Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Zonas Ãridas (CEAZA) “Programa Regional CONICYT R16A10003”. We thank SABIOD MI CNRS, EADM MaDICS CNRS and ANR-18-CE40-0014 SMILES supporting this research. We are grateful to colleagues at DCLDE 2018 and SOLAMAC 2018 conferences for useful comments on the preliminary version of this work. In this work we used only the free and open-source softwares Latex, Audacity and OCTAVE

Identifying key habitats for the conservation of Chilean dolphins in the fjords of southern Chile

In the face of environmental degradation, animals with limited plasticity are likely to be the most vulnerable. Habitat selection by the threatened, endemic Chilean dolphin (Cephalorhynchus eutropia) was investigated in the northern Patagonian fjords, an area of extraordinary biological productivity. Generalized additive models were undertaken to assess the ecological determinants of Chilean dolphin spatial distribution and habitat selection. Data were collected from dedicated fine-scale marine surveys conducted during the austral summer of 2007, 2008 and 2009 Modelling techniques provide strong support for Chilean dolphins aggregating in distinct hotspots, preferring shallow water, near rivers and in areas where the influence of tidal regime is greater. The preference for coastal shallow waters and river influenced habitats by Chilean dolphins puts them in direct conflict with a growing aquaculture industry and hydropower projects. The models predict areas of high densities of Chilean dolphins and excluding these areas from new developments would provide clear protection to the habitat most important to this poorly known endemic Chilean species.11 page(s

Seabirds of Easter Island, Salas y G\uf3mez Island and Desventuradas Islands, southeastern Pacific Ocean

We reviewed available information on seabirds inhabiting Easter Island, Salas y Gómez Island and Desventuradas Islands and their adjacent waters through an analysis of published and grey literature. Results obtained indicate that a total of 37 species are present in the study area and that, among the orders represented, the Procellariiformes and Charadriiformes are the dominant taxa (29 species). Moreover, the family Procellariidae is represented by 13 species and Laridae by 7 species. There has been an increase in new records over the past six years but no systematic studies have been developed. The need for further research that focuses on ecological aspects and anthropogenic impacts is critical in order to develop adequate conservation strategies