Like big-wave surfers and daring meteorologists, petrels in the Sea of Japan deliberately head for powerful (and dangerous) storms.
When a hurricane hits, most birds flee or take refuge. After all, these storms can cause mass bird mortality. However, after analyzing wind data and GPS tracking information from 75 streaked shearwaters, British and Japanese researchers found that seabirds migrated toward the center of the hurricane and remained there for up to eight hours. I found
Researchers Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Petrels do this to avoid being blown to shore, where they are vulnerable to crash landings and predation. The team also found that adult petrels handle storms better than juveniles, which lack a “map sense” of where the land is.
Swansea University biologist Emily Shepherd, co-author of the paper, said she was “in awe” of these master flyers, who use their long, slender wings to soar across the open, windswept seas of their albatross relatives. I’m holding you,” he said. (Manx-her petrels once traversed the entire Atlantic Ocean in 12 days, while Pacific sooty shearwaters cover up to 40,000 miles a year.)
Shepard’s team found that streaked shearwaters bypass storms when they are far from the ocean. But when we were caught between a major storm and land—in danger of being beached—a few instead headed into the eye of the storm and through the fastest winds. “Big waves and high winds are not a problem for these birds,” says Josh Adams, a biologist at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Western Ecological Research Center. He was not involved in this research.
Individual albatross migrating through cyclones have been tracked before, but this is the first time researchers have documented a bird that appears to purposefully and strategically enter a storm. Despite weighing as little as a pint of milk, streaked shearwaters “have the built-in ability to handle the strongest storms we’ve seen in Japan,” says Shepard. “It’s amazing to think that petrels will be there even during hurricanes that are projected to become more intense due to climate change.”
Other bird species, on the other hand, must flee the scene or risk drowning.
