H. Weimerskirch et al., Chick provisioning by the Yellow-nosed Albatross Diomedea chlororhynchos: response of foraging effort to experimentally increased costs and demands, IBIS, 142(1), 2000, pp. 103-110
We examined the provisioning strategy of a long-lived seabird to test the p
rediction from life-history theory that adults should preferentially alloca
te resources towards their own needs rather than towards their offspring, a
nd to test the abilities of adults to regulate provisioning according to th
e chick needs. The individual provisioning behaviour of Yellow-nosed Albatr
osses Diomedea chlororhynchos was studied, costs of flight being increased
by adding a weight handicap to foraging parents, and needs of the chicks be
ing increased by induced regurgitation (underfed chicks) or decreased by fo
od supplementation (overfed chicks). Control birds were found to regulate p
rovisioning in relation to the nutritional status of the chick and to the m
ass of the adult. As a result of increased foraging costs, and possibly of
reduced foraging ability, handicapped adults spent more time foraging and d
elivered smaller meals. Unlike control birds, they were unable to regulate
provisioning and lost slightly more mass than control birds, but they had s
imilar survival to the next breeding season. The behaviour of parents reari
ng underfed chicks was similar to that of control birds, but adults rearing
overfed chicks delivered smaller meals, at the same frequency as control b
irds. Thus, although parent Yellow-nosed Albatrosses can perceive the nutri
tional status of the chick and regulate provisioning accordingly, they are
unable to increase the provisioning rate significantly. They primarily keep
resources for themselves, their own body condition determining the level o
f investment in the chick. Most albatrosses and petrels behave so that prim
arily adult body condition is protected often at the expense of chick provi
sioning. Regulation abilities differ between species probably according to
several factors such as foraging strategies, distance to feeding zones or b
ody size.