Intra-annual Shifts in Atlantic Puffin <i>Fratercula arctica</i> Depredation and Kleptoparasitism by <i>Larus</i> Gulls at a Multi-species Seabird Colony
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Great Black-backed Gulls Larus marinus and American Herring Gulls L. argentatus smithsonianus are considered dietary generalists at the population level: they consume a variety of prey types, including the adults and offspring of other seabirds, and they shift among prey types as availability varies. Atlantic Puffin Fratercula arctica adults, eggs, and chicks are often the target of depredation, and adults are also susceptible to kleptoparasitic attacks by large gulls during their summer breeding season in coastal Newfoundland, Canada. We investigated the depredation and kleptoparasitism of puffins by large gulls during July–August 2021/22 at a multi-species breeding colony on the northeast coast of Newfoundland. We hypothesized that both the inshore arrival of spawning Capelin Mallotus villosus, a key forage fish species in the region, and the onset of the puffin chick-rearing period, which typically coincide, influence puffin depredation and kleptoparasitism by large gulls. Shoreline transects on James Island revealed a decrease in new adult puffin carcasses during puffin chick rearing and Capelin spawning, with most adult puffin depredation occurring before the inshore arrival of spawning Capelin in both years. Behavioural observations (i.e., focal animal, behavioural sampling, and instantaneous scan sampling) revealed that Great Black-backed Gulls were more often present within puffin burrow areas and spent a higher proportion of time in these areas relative to American Herring Gulls, especially during Capelin spawning and puffin chick-rearing. Within puffin burrow areas, Great Black-backed Gulls depredated chicks and kleptoparasitized adults. As only ~30% of followed individuals of both gull species entered puffin burrow areas, it is possible that only a few Great Black-backed Gulls were responsible for puffin depredation and kleptoparasitism.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".