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Round Island is home to many intriguing creatures, but by far the most enigmatic of the island's fauna is the Round Island Petrel. New work on these birds hopes to shed light on some of their many mysteries. Interestingly, the petrels breeding on Round Island are thought to be a complex mixture of three species of petrel, initially from the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The huge distances these birds must have originally travelled to arrive at Round Island hints at the expanse of sea they might potentially cover outside their breeding season. After having bred on Round Island, the petrels depart and fly out to sea; not to return for a whole year. But where do they go? Malcolm Nicoll and Ken Norris of Reading University will soon reveal the petrels' secret lives at sea using geolocators fitted to the birds' legs. These will then be collected from the birds next year and calibrated to discover their journeying over the non-breeding season. Lucy Rouse and Katherine Booth Jones of Cardiff University, themselves unravelling the mystery of Round Island petrel diets and foraging ecology, are collaborating with the Reading team to deploy their geolocators during their stay on the island. Captured petrels are fitted with a small plastic ring attached to a geolocator and a blood sample is taken to determine the species of the petrel, if indeed it is not a hybrid bird. The new awareness gained by these studies on the travels and diets of the possibly unique population of Round Island Petrels will be of vital importance for their future conservation.
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