Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program:
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

Project


Diet Composition and Reproductive Energetics of a Rare and Declining Seabird, the Kittlitz's Murrelet

August 2008 - December 2010


Personnel

Participating Agencies

Our primary objectives for this specific project are to: (1) Characterize and describe the pre-breeding and post-breeding diet of adult KIMU in Icy Bay, Alaska, and, if permitting allows, evaluate long-term variation in diet using historical museum specimens; (2) Understand the relationship between physiological factors (e.g., reproductive status) and diet of individual adult KIMU; and, (3) Develop a reproductive energetics model to quantify energy and food requirements of adults during the breeding season.