Summary:
The article describes a surprising behavior discovered in Desertas petrels, rare seabirds that nest on Bugio Island in Portugal. Scientists attached tiny GPS trackers to the birds to study their movements during breeding season. The trackers showed that the petrels can travel at least 5,000 miles across the Atlantic while searching for food. Instead of constantly flapping their wings, they use ocean winds to glide long distances while conserving energy.
The biggest surprise came when researchers compared the GPS data with hurricane and cyclone paths. Rather than avoiding storms, the petrels flew directly toward them and sometimes followed them for days, even encountering winds of around 100 mph and waves up to 8 meters high. Scientists believe the reason is connected to the birds’ food. Desertas petrels eat small fish, squid, and crustaceans that normally live hundreds or thousands of feet below the ocean surface, too deep for the birds to reach. Cyclones mix the ocean and bring cold, nutrient-rich deep water and prey toward the surface, creating an unusually large feeding opportunity. Therefore, the dangerous storm may actually give the birds access to an enormous amount of food.
The article also describes Mediterranean storm petrels studied near Sardinia. These birds were found to prefer crosswinds instead of tailwinds, even though tailwinds would seem more energy-efficient. Scientists think this may help the birds use their sense of smell to locate food more effectively by crossing scent plumes rather than simply following them downwind. Overall, the research shows that seabirds have evolved sophisticated ways of using wind, storms, ocean currents, and sensory information to survive in the open ocean.
Thinking Question for Jane
English: In evolutionary biology, traits evolve to maximize a species’ overall survival and reproductive success (fitness). From this perspective, taking big risks—like flying into a cyclone—can actually be more evolutionary advantages than playing it safe, as long as the reward (a massive food intake) outweighs the mortality risk.
1. Risk-Reward Evolutionary Logic: How would you explain why the “Risk-Taking Strategy” of flying into storms yielded a higher survival and reproduction rate for petrels compared to a hypothetical “Safety-First Strategy” that avoids storms entirely?
2. Evolutionarily Stable Strategy (ESS): If all seabirds suddenly became risk-takers chasing cyclones, competition in the storm’s eye would skyrocket, lowering individual rewards. How do you think nature maintains a balance between “risk-taking” and “safety-oriented” behaviors within a population or species?
1. Risk-Reward Evolutionary Logic
The risk-taking strategy of flying toward cyclones could give petrels a higher survival and reproduction rate because the benefits of finding large amounts of food may outweigh the dangers of the storm. Cyclones bring deep-water prey such as small fish, squid, and crustaceans closer to the ocean surface, making them much easier for petrels to catch. This allows the birds to obtain a large amount of energy without spending as much energy searching for food. The extra energy can help them survive long migrations, maintain their health, and provide enough energy for reproduction and raising their chicks. In contrast, a safety-first petrel that always avoided storms would face less immediate danger but could miss these unusually valuable feeding opportunities. Therefore, if the increased food supply improves survival and reproductive success more than the storm increases mortality risk, natural selection would favor the risk-taking strategy.
2. Evolutionarily Stable Strategy (ESS)
If every petrel became a risk-taker and chased cyclones, the strategy would become less beneficial because competition for the concentrated food would increase. More birds feeding in the same area would mean less food available for each individual, while all of them would still face the dangers of the storm. This could make safer feeding strategies more advantageous again. On the other hand, if most birds avoided storms, there would be less competition for the food around cyclones, allowing risk-taking birds to gain a large reward. This creates a form of frequency-dependent selection, where the success of a behavior depends on how common it is. As a result, natural selection could maintain a balance between risk-taking and safety-oriented behaviors rather than making every bird follow exactly the same strategy.
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