Shag diet diversifies with rising sea temperatures

20/11/2017

A new study has found that sea surface temperatures have a direct impact on the diet of European Shag, highlighting problems that future climatic warming and resultant sea surface temperature increases might impose on its populations.

Long-term changes in climate are affecting the abundance, distribution and phenology (or seasonal timing of life habits) of species across all trophic levels (or discrete hierarchies in an ecosystem). Short-term climate variability is also having a profound impact on species and their interactions. Crucially, species will experience long- and short-term variation simultaneously, and both are predicted to change, yet studies tend to focus on only one of these temporal scales. Apex predators are sensitive to long-term climate-driven changes in prey populations and short-term effects of weather on prey availability, both of which could result in changes of diet.

The study investigated temporal trends and effects of long- and short-term environmental variability on chick diet composition in a North Sea population of European Shags between 1985 and 2014. The proportion of their principal prey, Lesser Sandeel, declined from 99 per cent (1985) to 51 per cent (2014), and estimated sandeel size declined from 104.5 to 92.0 mm over the same time period.

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Reopening wharf could scare off rare shag

Since being closed to the public, Oamaru's historic Sumpter Wharf has become a breeding colony for an endangered and little-known species of shag.

Dr Chris Lalas

And with the Waitaki District Council now investigating reopening the 200m-long wharf to the public, scientists who know the birds are concerned.

Dunedin-based researcher Dr Chris Lalas, who has been studying shags for the last 40 years, first discovered Otago shag nests at the wharf in 2014.

"If it gets opened up to the public, it will totally destroy it as a shag location,'' Dr Lalas said.

Human use and an Otago shag breeding colony were "not compatible''.

Like the more common spotted shag, which are also a common sight on the wharf, it was believed Otago shags only roosted at the wharf and he was surprised to find them breeding there.

In 2015, he counted 235 nests at the wharf.

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‘Shag’ in showroom proves popular

Kieran Murray

17:11Tuesday 12 January 201612:02Monday 11 January 2016

Staff at a Bridlington building supplies firm were left amazed at witnessing a ‘shag’ in their showroom.

The goose-sized bird waddled into MKM Building Supplies on Bessingby Industrial Estate where it jumped into a bathroom.

The bird that waddled into MKM Building Supplies in Bridlington

Kitchen specialist at MKM Building Supplies Steffi Taylor, 35, said: “We saw it first outside stood on a bollard and, with me being an animal lover, I wanted a closer look. It was so cute and it just waddled into the showroom like a penguin making a funny flapping sound.”

The staff believed the bird was a Razorbill initially and they called the RSPB to go down to retrieve the bird where they got a surprise.

“Everyone just found him gorgeous,” said Steffi. “We thought he was a Razorbill at first and you can only imagine the reaction of the staff when we found out it was a shag. Inside it jumped on to boxes, went inside a bath and was sat on the loo for quite a while too.

“We even gave him the name Shaun the shag.”

In the UK shags breed on coastal sites, mainly in the north and west, and more than half their population is found at fewer than 10 sites. They are on the Red List meaning it’s a globally threatened species.

RSPB intern Chris Callow went down to collect the bird and, expecting to have to dig among pallets and bags of cement for it, was surprised to see it had wandered into the showroom.

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