Andreas Ravache

Greater noctule bats prey on and consume passerines in flight Despite billions of passerines seasonally migrating during the night at high altitudes, only three bat species have been found to consistently tap into this rich prey resource. However, it remains unk...

[NEW PAPER]

What a surprising behavior !

🦇Greater noctules (𝘕𝘺𝘤𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘴 𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘶𝘴) soar above 400 meters, using echolocation to chase and snatch nocturnal migratory passerines mid-flight—unlocking a high-altitude feast most predators can’t reach.

#batresearch #bioacoustics

NEW JOB in #ornithology and #conservation to track #seabirds from Rathlin Island and analyse data to identify foraging areas (deadline 10 Nov): buff.ly/K0zcdH8

Perspective Who gets the spotlight? Disparities in seabird research attention at scientific conferences Ingrid L. Pollet a b Alexander L. Bond b c Jennifer L. Lavers b c d Highlights • Decade-long review of >2,950 seabird conference abstracts. • Over 30% of seabird species are rarely or never featured at scientific conferences • Several seabirds listed as Critically Endangered have received little or no attention. • 16 seabird species are over-represented in conferences. • Southern Hemisphere seabirds require greater research attention.

Hey seabird folks - have you ever thought "*ANOTHER* talk about <species X>?!" So did we.

So we reviewed 3000 conference abstracts to see which species get the spotlight. Huge work from @ingridpollet.bsky.social with me and @seabirdsentinel.bsky.social

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Current frontiers in the passive acoustic monitoring of bats Passive acoustic monitoring of bats is used in a growing number of studies in applied and basic research, from local to global scales. Despite the publication of good-practice recommendations, sev...

[ NEW TEAM PAPER ]

🦇🎤 Passive acoustic monitoring of 𝗯𝗮𝘁𝘀 holds huge potential, but how do bat counts correlate with actual numbers? Which factors affect detectability? New metrics & models could revolutionize our understanding. Time to standardize protocols & share data! #BatResearch #Bioacoustics

🦇A new article from our research team !

🔍This time, we used 3D acoustic tracking of bats to study their behaviour when foraging alone, in presence of conspecifics or heterospecifics.

🎯A very interesing way to explore the optimal foraging theory under different scenarios.

Taxonomic distribution of all banded seabirds that were recorded in the North American Bird Banding Program dataset (1930–2023) as having died from colliding with anthropogenic structures. Recovery rate is defined as the number of collision-associated recoveries per 100,000 birds banded. Bird silhouettes generated by PhyloPic (Keesey 2024).

There's a new guest post on the WOS blog! Riley Lawson describes the backstory of his recent paper in The Wilson Journal of #Ornithology, which documents the underappreciated threat that collisions with anthropogenic structures pose to #seabirds. wilsonsociety.org/2025/07/28/g...

[ #Seabirds influence vegetation ]

👩‍🔬 Isotopes & nutrients were compared at an active, abandoned, and control shearwater site
📈 Vegetation & herbivores showed δ¹⁵N enrichment from guano, but soil δ¹⁵N remained unchanged
🏝️Phosphorus and potassium concentraitons suggest that seabirds fertilize soils

Mercury levels in chicks of a long-lived seabird – parental effects and links with growth and survival Environmental mercury levels continue to rise, leading to increased exposure, especially in long-lived species at high trophic positions, such as many…

Bertram et al. Mercury levels in chicks of a long-lived seabird – parental effects and links with growth and survival www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #ornithology #seabirds

Rat Odour Does Not Repel European Storm Petrels Hydrobates pelagicus Las aves marinas en general, y los petreles en particular, presentan múltiples problemas de conservación. Los depredadores invasores son su principal amenaza en las colonias de cría. Las ratas son los...

Sanz-Aguilar et al. Rat Odour Does Not Repel European Storm Petrels Hydrobates pelagicus bioone.org/journals/ard... #ornithology #seabirds

[ 𝑺𝒄𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝑼𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝑷𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆 ]

🔍 While most researchers report positive interactions that facilitate the transfer of their findings, interactions within the wind energy 💨 and agrochemical sectors 🚜are more often negative ⛔ especially when the research conflicts with political or economic interests 💶

To protect wildlife as offshore wind grows, we need the best ecological data. Monash University researchers created a practical guide to seabird flight—how high, how fast & when they fly.

📄 Journal of Applied Ecology: bit.ly/4eXfqQw

#Seabirds #ClimateAndNature

Advancing Seabird Diet Studies Through Buccal Swabbing for DNA Metabarcoding Determining the diet of wide-ranging, pelagic seabirds is challenging. In this study, we investigated buccal swabbing and DNA metabarcoding to describe the diet of Manx shearwaters (Puffinus puffinus...

🍽️𝐀 𝐧𝐨𝐧-𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐲 𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐭 !

The authors combined buccal swabbing and metabarcoding to investigate the diet of #Seabirds species. This method appears to be minimally invasive and relatively easy to implement. A complement to approaches based on regurgitates or fecal samples?

This kind of descriptive work won’t make the front page of Nature, but it’s essential for protecting lesser-known species.
Science isn’t always flashy, but it matters!

This study, led by @ird-fr.bsky.social and @birdnewcaledonia.bsky.social, will provide essential information for their conservation

But the species is in trouble:
🛠️ Habitat loss from mining
🐀 Predation by rats & cats
🎣 Bycatch risk due to scavenging behavior
Our study shows breeding success drops where predators are present.

Behavioral and trophic segregations help the Tahiti petrel to cope with the abundance of wedge-tailed shearwater when foraging in oligotrophic tropical waters - Scientific Reports Scientific Reports - Behavioral and trophic segregations help the Tahiti petrel to cope with the abundance of wedge-tailed shearwater when foraging in oligotrophic tropical waters

🥚Once mature, they return to their birthplace to lay a single egg in a burrow.
Unlike most other species, they breed year-round, reducing interspecific competition.
Both parents take turns going to sea, traveling thousands of kilometers to bring food back to their chick.

🔍 During my PhD in New Caledonia, we surveyed dozens of islets and hiked into remote mountain forests to find the burrows where they nested 🏝️⛰️ searching for a needle in a haystack!
🎊But we eventually found what may be the largest known colony of this species. A major step for its conservation !

🎉New paper out! My first as last author

🔗http://www.marineornithology.org/PDF/53_1/53_1_1-11.pdf

🧵 Let me walk you through years of research on a rare, elusive & endangered #Seabirds : the Tahiti petrel
A story of exploration, discovery, and challenges in conservation science👇

📷Hadoram Shirihai

Seabirds in crisis: Plastic ingestion induces proteomic signatures of multiorgan failure and neurodegeneration Plastic consumption in seabirds causes blood signatures of widespread organ damage including brain, stomach, kidney, and liver.

🍽️🐦 Proteomic studies reveals that #Seabirds with plastic in their stomachs had signs of neurodegenerative disease, kidney and liver disease as well as damage to the lining of the stomach

☠️While not always lethal, microplastics will undoubtedly have long-term effects on populations.

Very beautiful graphs and impressive results!
As you partially explain the changes in body mass by an increase in insect abundance, could the absence of a long-term relationship be due to a lack of correlation between temperature and insect abundance over the long term?

Global assessment of marine plastic exposure risk for oceanic birds - Nature Communications Petrels are wide-ranging, highly threatened seabirds that often ingest plastic. This study used tracking data for 7,137 petrels of 77 species to map global exposure risk and compare regions, species, ...

🌏Back in 2023, Bethany Clark and her collaborators combined telemtry data and plastic density estimates to estimate marine plastic exposure risk for oceaninc seabirds worldwide.
🔗Find out more here : www.nature.com/articles/s41...

An account of the natural history and exploitation of the great auk (Pinguinus impennis) in ‘Histoire des pesches’, an illustrated eighteenth-century manuscript | Archives of Natural History The hunting of the great auk (Pinguinus impennis), which led to its extinction in the mid-nineteenth century, is well documented. However, the discovery of archives providing new details on this speci...

Two colleagues recently published a paper on the ecology of the great auk, based on a 300-year-old unpublished manuscript! You can find out more here:
www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3...

An account of the natural history and exploitation of the great auk (Pinguinus impennis) in ‘Histoire des pesches’, an illustrated eighteenth-century manuscript | Archives of Natural History The hunting of the great auk (Pinguinus impennis), which led to its extinction in the mid-nineteenth century, is well documented. However, the discovery of archives providing new details on this speci...

Two colleagues recently published a paper on the ecology of the great auk, based on a 300-year-old unpublished manuscript! You can find out more here:
www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3...

Common Murres sitting on a rock covered in, well... common murre poop. #birds #newfoundland #seabirds

[𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆]

Thrilled to share the first results of our APOCOPE project at the Renewable Energy & Biodiversity conference in Paris!

A great opportunity to highlight our work on wind farms and wildlife. 🌬️🦇🌿

Mismatches between the current marine Natura 2000 network and seabird distributions call for enhanced protected areas off metropolitan France Seabirds are among the most threatened vertebrates, under pressure from fisheries bycatch, climate change, overfishing, and human disturbance. In Fran…

❗[OUT OF THE PRESS]❗

The authors collected distribution data from 57 seabird taxa, revealing seabird hotspots outside the existing ecological network 🐦🌐

Both methods and results worth a look !

#seabirds #conservation #marinebiology

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Maternal behavior influences vocal practice and learning processes in the greater sac-winged bat Non-tutorial feedback shapes song acquisition in a mammalian vocal learner.

🦇 Greater sac-winged bat pups acquire their vocal repertoire through a conspicuous vocal practice behavior reminiscent of babbling in human infants. Pups spend about 30% of their daily activity time babbling – and it turns out that mothers influence this behavior.

elifesciences.org/articles/99474

🦇 Using acoustic activity to redict bat fatalities at wind farm could help to identify at-risk areas for bats, and to implement effective curtailment measures ❗

#bats #conservation #bioacoustics

❗[Job Opportunity]❗

🦇 Sampling and banking of chiropteran acoustic data on the coast and at sea
📍 Concarneau, Brittany, FRANCE
📆 3 months, starting in June
📧 anais.pessato@mnhn.fr

‼️[NEW PAPER]‼️

Our team's latest paper explores the breeding biology of a little-known and threatened Procellariid species: the Tahiti Petrel. The marked decline in reproductive success in the presence of predators highlights the species' high sensitivity to disturbance and predation.

#seabirds

Differences in fur cortisol levels of three migratory bats - Journal of Comparative Physiology B Understanding how organisms respond to their environments is challenging, especially due to the complex processes related to metabolism, energetics, and reproduction. Glucocorticoids (GCs) are metabol...

New OA 🦇 research 📄

Differences in fur cortisol levels of three migratory bats

link.springer.com/article/10.1...