Marine Biology Commons^™

Heightened Heart Rate But Similar Flight Responses To Evolved Versus Recent Predators In An Arctic Seabird, Erica A. Geldart, Oliver P. Love, H. Grant Gilchrist, Andrew F. Barnas, Christopher M. Harris, Christina A.D. Semeniuk

Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research Publications

Predator-prey dynamics in the Arctic are being altered with changing sea ice phenology. The increasing frequency of predation on colonial nesting seabirds and their eggs by the polar bear (Ursus maritimus) is a consequence of bears shifting to terrestrial food resources through a shortened seal-hunting season. We examined antipredator responses in a colony of nesting Common Eiders (Somateria mollissima) on East Bay Island, Nunavut, Canada, which is exposed to established nest predators, such as arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus), but also to recent increases in polar bear nest predation due to the bears’ lost on-ice hunting opportunities. Given eiders’ limited eco-evolutionary …