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Volume 3 • 2015 10.1093/conphys/cov041
Research article
Effects of human disturbance on cave-nesting Downloaded from http://conphys.oxfordjournals.org/ by guest on March 12, 2016
seabirds: the case of the storm petrel
Cecilia Soldatini1,*, Yuri V. Albores-Barajas2, Marcello Tagliavia3, Bruno Massa4, Leonida Fusani5,6
and Virginie Canoine5
1Unidad La Paz, Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada, Miraflores 334, La Paz, Baja California Sur 23050, Mexico
2Ornis Italica, Piazza Crati 15, 00199 Rome, Italy
3IAMC-CNR (Institute for Coastal Marine Environment), Via del Mare, 3 Torretta Granitola (Campobello di Mazara, TP), 91021, Italy
4Department Agriculture and Forest Sciences, University of Palermo, Viale Scienze 13, I-90128 Palermo, Italy
5Department of Behavioural Biology, University of Vienna, Althanstraße 14, 1090 Vienna, Austria
6Konrad Lorenz Institute for Ethology, University of Veterinary Medicine, Savoyenstrasse 1, 1160 Vienna, Austria
*Corresponding author: Unidad La Paz, Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada, Miraflores 334, La Paz, Baja
California Sur 23050, Mexico. Tel: +52 (612) 121 3031 ext. 28123. Email: csoldatini@cicese.mx
Human disturbance is an important stress factor with potentially strong impact on breeding activity in animals. The conse-
quences can be extinction of the breeding population, because disturbed animals might desert their breeding area and find
no suitable substitute area. In this study, we investigated the effects of anthropogenic disturbance on a breeding population
of Mediterranean storm petrels. Seabirds are increasingly used as bio-indicators for sea environmental parameters, because
they are very sensitive to changing conditions. Burrowing or cave-nesting species may be particularly susceptible to human
disturbance because their direct contact with humans is usually minimal or absent. First, we compared two different popula-
tions (exposed or not exposed to human disturbance) for their individual stress response to a standardized stressor (handling
and keeping in a cloth bag). Second, we compared the two sub-colonies for their population-level stress response. Third, we
tested experimentally whether sub-colonies of storm petrels exposed to tourism have physiological adaptations to anthropo-
genic disturbances. Our results indicate that storm petrels may be habituated to moderate disturbance associated with boat
traffic close to the colony.
Key words: Breeding period, habituation, human disturbance, seabird, stress hormones
Editor: Steven Cooke
Received 3 April 2015; Revised 30 July 2015; accepted 1 August 2015
Cite as: Soldatini C, Albores-Barajas YV, Tagliavia M, Massa B, Fusani L, Canoine V (2015) Effects of human disturbance on cave-nesting seabirds:
the case of the storm petrel. Conserv Physiol 3: doi:10.1093/conphys/cov041.
Introduction often unknown even to the people living close to the breeding
colonies (Albores-Barajas et al., 2008, 2012; Massa, 2009).
Many seabirds, especially ground-nesting species, are vulnera- However, increasing human activity linked either to urban
ble to predation, for which reason they have developed special- development or to tourism is having an enormous impact on
ized behavioural strategies. Typically, they breed in inaccessible breeding populations, with potentially catastrophic conse-
areas, such as on cliffs or remote islands (Schreiber et al., 2002), quences for threatened and endangered species (Nisbet, 1981,
and visit their colonies only at night to avoid contact with other 2000; Lishman, 1985; Culik et al., 1990; Culik and Wilson,
species, including predators (Miles et al., 2013). This behaviour 1991; Ellenberg et al., 2007; Seddon and Ellenberg, 2008; see
has also prevented contact with humans; thus, their presence is also review by Carney and Sydeman, 1999).
© The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press and the Society for Experimental Biology. 1
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
