Starvation is putting UK seabirds on the attack, according to ‘disturbing’ research (press release).

In the Royal Society’s Biology Letters journal Kate Ashbrook and colleagues say fish shortages have more guillemots foraging for food and leaving chicks unattended.

“Although non-breeders and failed breeders sometimes provided alloparental care, unattended chicks were frequently attacked by breeding guillemots at neighbouring sites, often with fatal consequences,” they say.

Ashbrook’s study was conducted on the Isle of May, off the coast of Scotland. She found 66% chicks that hatched did not survive and attacks by neighbours accounted for 69% of these deaths.

Tim Birkhead, of Sheffield University, told the Guardian: “It is one of the most extraordinary behaviours I have ever heard about and it really flags up that something monumental is happening out at sea. All one can do is watch in despair as this catastrophe unfolds.”

More coverage

Infanticide rife in guillemot colony – Daily Telegraph

Seabird chicks ‘killed over food’ – BBC

Starving guillemots push rival chicks off cliffs – Guardian

Starving seabirds fling neighbours’ chicks from cliffs as severe food shortages make them aggressive – Daily Mail

Previous sea-bird nastiness on the Great Beyond

Super-evolved mega-mice threaten island birds

Images: top – guillemot, lower – unattended chicks / Kate Ashbrook