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Articles

Vol. 39 No. 1 (2008)

FEATURED PHOTO - ATTEMPTED KLEPTOPARASITISM BY A SOUTH POLAR SKUA ON A LAYSAN ALBATROSS

Submitted
December 3, 2025
Published
January 1, 2008

Abstract

As a group, the skuas and jaegers are well known as kleptoparasites, i.e., species that pirate food from other species. In general, the victimized species are smaller than the kleptoparasites, but sometimes victims are larger, the best-known instance of this being the Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus) relative to the Great Skua (Catharacta skua) (Furness 1987, Spear et al. 1999). Attacks by skuas on albatrosses have been reported on only a few occasions, but such attacks are rarely successful, and those noted to date have involved the relatively large Brown (or Subantarctic) Skua (C. antarctica) (Spear et al. 1999).

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