Credit: CC0 Public Domain
When it comes to traveling distances, no one beats seabirds. Arctic terns travel from the Arctic to Antarctica and back every year. Meanwhile, Wandering albatrosses (Diomedea exulans) cover the equivalent of ten times the distance from Earth to the moon during their lifetime.
Seabirds use their sight and even their sense of smell to find food and choose their flight paths. Wandering albatrosses can travel more than 10,000km in a single foraging trip. However, how they find their way is still a mystery.
But for the first time, a recent study gives an insight into how seabirds like wandering albatrosses may use sound to assess what conditions are like in other areas.
Previous research has shown that seabirds not only seek information about where to find food, but also how to do so efficiently. Wandering albatrosses use their sense of sound, especially infrasound, to this end.
Infrasound, which is typically inaudible to humans, can travel thousands of kilometers and reveal information about areas that are teeming with fish—key foraging spots for seabirds.
For large seabird species like the wandering albatross, efficient foraging is essential, and infrasound provides them with a long-range cue for locating optimal foraging conditions.
Infrasound also gives seabirds insights into the location of coastal features, such as lines, which they can use to find their breeding colonies. So, infrasound is crucial in guiding seabirds across long distances.
