The razorbill, razor-billed auk, or lesser auk (''Alca torda'') is a colonial
seabird
Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same enviro ...
and the only extant member of the
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...
Alcidae
An auk or alcid is a bird of the family Alcidae in the order Charadriiformes. The alcid family includes the murres, guillemots, auklets, puffins, and murrelets. The word "auk" is derived from Icelandic ''álka'', from Old Norse ''alka'' (a ...
, the
auk
An auk or alcid is a bird of the family Alcidae in the order Charadriiformes. The alcid family includes the murres, guillemots, auklets, puffins, and murrelets. The word "auk" is derived from Icelandic ''álka'', from Old Norse ''alka'' (a ...
s. It is the closest living relative of the extinct great auk (''Pinguinis impennis''). Wild populations live in the subarctic waters of the
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
.
Razorbills are primarily black with a white underside. The male and female are identical in plumage; however, males are generally larger than females. This agile bird, which is capable of both flight and diving, has a predominantly aquatic lifestyle and only comes to land in order to breed. It is monogamous, choosing one partner for life. Females lay one egg per year. Razorbills nest along coastal cliffs in enclosed or slightly exposed crevices. The parents spend equal amounts of time incubating, and once the chick has hatched, they take turns foraging for their young.
In 1918, the razorbill was protected in the United States by the
Migratory Bird Treaty Act
The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 (MBTA), codified at (although §709 is omitted), is a United States federal law, first enacted in 1918 to implement the convention for the protection of migratory birds between the United States and Canada . ...
. Presently, this species faces major threats, including the destruction of breeding sites, oil spills, and deterioration of food quality. The IUCN records the population of the Gagarka as fluctuating, causing its status to interchange. It has been recorded that the population had increased from 2008 to 2015, decreased from 2015 to 2021, and appears to be increasing or stable at the present. It is believed the population of the Razorbill lies between 838,000 and 1,600,000 individuals.this
Taxonomy
The
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...
''Alca'' was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist
Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his Nobility#Ennoblement, ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalise ...
in the tenth edition of his '' Systema Naturae''. The genus name ''Alca'' is from Norwegian ''Alke'', and ''torda'' is from ''törd'' a Gotland Swedish dialect word. Both terms refer to this species. The word ''Alca'' had been used by earlier authors for the razorbill such as
Carolus Clusius
Charles de l'Écluse, L'Escluse, or Carolus Clusius (19 February 1526 – 4 April 1609), seigneur de Watènes, was an Artois doctor and pioneering botanist, perhaps the most influential of all 16th-century scientific horticulturists.
Life
Clu ...
in 1605 and
Francis Willughby
Francis Willughby (sometimes spelt Willoughby, la, Franciscus Willughbeius) FRS (22 November 1635 – 3 July 1672) was an English ornithologist and ichthyologist, and an early student of linguistics and games.
He was born and raised at ...
in 1676.
The razorbill (''Alca torda'') is now the sole species in the genus ''Alca''. Its close relative, the great auk (''Pinguinus impennis''), became extinct in the mid-19th century. Razorbills and great auks are part of the
tribe
The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to confli ...
Alcini, which also includes the
common murre
The common murre or common guillemot (''Uria aalge'') is a large auk. It has a circumpolar distribution, occurring in low-Arctic and boreal waters in the North Atlantic and North Pacific. It spends most of its time at sea, only coming to land to ...
or common guillemot (''Uria aalge''), the
thick-billed murre
The thick-billed murre or Brünnich's guillemot (''Uria lomvia'') is a bird in the auk family (Alcidae). This bird is named after the Danish zoologist Morten Thrane Brünnich. The very deeply black North Pacific subspecies ''Uria lomvia arra'' ...
(''Uria lomvia''), and the
dovekie
The little auk or dovekie (''Alle alle'') is a small auk, the only member of the genus ''Alle''. ''Alle'' is the Sami name of the long-tailed duck; it is onomatopoeic and imitates the call of the drake duck. Linnaeus was not particularly fam ...
(''Alle alle'').
There are two subspecies of razorbill recognized by the American Ornithologists' Union. ''Alca torda torda'', named by
Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...
in 1758, occurs in the
Baltic
Baltic may refer to:
Peoples and languages
* Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian
*Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originati ...
and
White Sea
The White Sea (russian: Белое море, ''Béloye móre''; Karelian and fi, Vienanmeri, lit. Dvina Sea; yrk, Сэрако ямʼ, ''Serako yam'') is a southern inlet of the Barents Sea located on the northwest coast of Russia. It is s ...
s,
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...
Iceland
Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...
,
Greenland
Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland i ...
, and eastern North America. ''Alca torda islandica'', named by C.L. Brehm in 1831, occurs throughout
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
,
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...
, and northwestern
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
. The two subspecies differ slightly in bill measurements. A third subspecies, ''Alca torda pica'', is no longer recognized because the distinguishing characteristic, an additional furrow in the upper mandible, is now known to be age-related.
Description
The razorbill has a white belly and a black head, neck, back, and feet during the breeding season. A thin white line also extends from the eyes to the end of the bill. Its head is darker than that of a
common murre
The common murre or common guillemot (''Uria aalge'') is a large auk. It has a circumpolar distribution, occurring in low-Arctic and boreal waters in the North Atlantic and North Pacific. It spends most of its time at sea, only coming to land to ...
. During the non-breeding season, the throat and face behind the eye become white, and the white line on the face and bill becomes less prominent. The bill is black, deep and laterally compressed, with a blunt end. It has several vertical grooves or furrows near the curved tip, one of them adorned with a white, broken vertical line. The bill is thinner and the grooves are less marked during the non-breeding season. It is a large and thick-set bird, for an
alcid
An auk or alcid is a bird of the family Alcidae in the order Charadriiformes. The alcid family includes the murres, guillemots, auklets, puffins, and murrelets. The word "auk" is derived from Icelandic ''álka'', from Old Norse ''alka'' (a ...
, and its mean weight ranges from . The female and male adults are very much alike, having only small differences such as wing length. It is 37–39 cm in body length, the wing length of adult males ranges from while that of females ranges from . During incubation, this species has a horizontal stance and the tail feathers are slightly longer in the center in comparison to other alcids. This makes the razorbill have a distinctly long tail which is not common for an auk. In-flight, the feet do not protrude beyond the tail.
Their mating system is female-enforced monogamy; the razorbill pairs for life. It nests in open or hidden crevices among cliffs and boulders. It is a
colonial
Colonial or The Colonial may refer to:
* Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology)
Architecture
* American colonial architecture
* French Colonial
* Spanish Colonial architecture
Automobiles
* Colonial (1920 au ...
breeder and only comes to land to breed. The annual survival rate of the razorbill is between 89 and 95%. Though the razorbill's average lifespan is roughly 13 years, a bird ringed in the UK in 1967 survived for at least 41 years—a record for the species.
Distribution and habitat
Razorbills are distributed across the North Atlantic; the world population of razorbills is estimated to be at less than 1,000,000 breeding pairs, making them among the rarest auks in the world (Chapdelaine ''et al.'' 2001). Approximately half of the breeding pairs occur in Iceland. Razorbills thrive at water surface temperatures below 15 °C. They are often seen with the two larger
auks
An auk or alcid is a bird of the family Alcidae in the order Charadriiformes. The alcid family includes the murres, guillemots, auklets, puffins, and murrelets. The word "auk" is derived from Icelandic ''álka'', from Old Norse ''alka'' (a ...
, thick-billed murre and common murre. However, unlike other auks, they commonly move into larger
estuaries
An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environmen ...
with lower salinity levels to feed. These birds are distributed across sub-arctic and boreal waters of the
Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...
. Their breeding habitat is islands, rocky shores, and cliffs on northern
Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...
Maine
Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and ...
, and in western
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
from northwestern
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
to northern
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
. North American birds migrate offshore and south, ranging from the
Labrador Sea
The Labrador Sea (French: ''mer du Labrador'', Danish: ''Labradorhavet'') is an arm of the North Atlantic Ocean between the Labrador Peninsula and Greenland. The sea is flanked by continental shelves to the southwest, northwest, and northeast. It ...
south to the
Grand Banks
The Grand Banks of Newfoundland are a series of underwater plateaus south-east of the island of Newfoundland on the North American continental shelf. The Grand Banks are one of the world's richest fishing grounds, supporting Atlantic cod, swordf ...
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...
. Eurasian birds also winter at sea, with multiple populations aggregating in the North Sea and some moving south as far as the western
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...
. Approximately 60 to 70% of the entire razorbill population breeds in
Iceland
Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...
.
Razorbill colonies include (north to south):
*
Grímsey
Grímsey () is a small Icelandic island, off the north coast of the main island of Iceland, straddling the Arctic Circle. In January 2018 Grímsey had 61 inhabitants.
Before 2009, Grimsey constituted the ''hreppur'' (municipality) of Grí ...
, Iceland (66°33' N)
*
Látrabjarg
Látrabjarg () is a promontory and the westernmost point in Iceland. The cliffs are home to millions of birds, including puffins, northern gannets, guillemots and razorbills. It is vital for their survival as it hosts up to 40% of the world popul ...
, Iceland (65°30' N) - 230,000 pairs, about 40% of the global population (mid-1990s estimate). Breeding season June - July.
* Runde, Norway (62°24' N) - 3,000 pairs
* St Kilda
*
Staple Island
Staple Island is a small rocky island, or skerry, that is one of the Outer Group of the Farne Islands in Northumberland, England. The Farne Islands are a designated National Nature Reserve. Staple Island is an important wildlife habitat known fo ...
, Outer
Farne Islands
The Farne Islands are a group of islands off the coast of Northumberland, England. The group has between 15 and 20 islands depending on the level of the tide.
, UK (55°38' N) - 20,000 pairs, breeding season May to mid-July.
*
Bempton Cliffs
Bempton Cliffs is a section of precipitous coast at Bempton in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is run by the RSPB as a nature reserve and is known for its breeding seabirds, including northern gannet, Atlantic puffin, razorbill, comm ...
Skomer Island
Skomer () or Skomer Island is an island off the coast of Pembrokeshire, in the community of Marloes and St Brides in west Wales. It is well known for its wildlife: around half the world's population of Manx shearwaters nest on the island, the ...
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
*
Heligoland
Heligoland (; german: Helgoland, ; Heligolandic Frisian: , , Mooring Frisian: , da, Helgoland) is a small archipelago in the North Sea. A part of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein since 1890, the islands were historically possessions ...
, Germany (54°10' N) - near the southern limit in Europe, a few pairs only
* Gannet Islands, Canada (53°58' N) - 9,800 pairs
*
Funk Island
Funk Island is a small, barren, isolated, uninhabited island approximately northeast of Musgrave Harbour, Newfoundland, Canada.
Geography
The island is roughly trapezoidal in shape, with a maximum length of 0.8 km (½ mile) and a maximum w ...
, Canada (49°45' N)
*
Baccalieu Island
Baccalieu Island or Bacalhoo Island () is a 5 km2 uninhabited island at the northern extremities of Conception Bay in Subdivision 1G, near the community of Red Head Cove, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. It is separated from the island ...
, Canada (48°07' N)
*
Witless Bay
Witless Bay is a town on the Avalon Peninsula in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Located on the Irish Loop, 35 km south of the provincial capital, St. John's, Witless Bay is a small, scenic, traditional Newfoundland ou ...
, Canada (47°13' N)
*
Cape St. Mary's
The headland of Cape St. Mary's is located at the southern tip of the south-western arm of the Avalon Peninsula of the island of Newfoundland in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Cape St. Mary's is probably one of the most well ...
, Canada (46°49' N)
Behaviour
The life-history traits of the razorbill are similar to that of the
common murre
The common murre or common guillemot (''Uria aalge'') is a large auk. It has a circumpolar distribution, occurring in low-Arctic and boreal waters in the North Atlantic and North Pacific. It spends most of its time at sea, only coming to land to ...
. However, razorbills are slightly more agile. During breeding, both males and females protect the nest. Females select their mate and will often encourage competition between males before choosing a partner. Once a male is chosen, the pair will stay together for life.
Reproduction
Individuals only breed at 3–5 years of age. As pairs grow older they will occasionally skip a year of breeding. A mating pair will court several times during breeding periods to strengthen their bond.
Courtship
Courtship is the period wherein some couples get to know each other prior to a possible marriage. Courtship traditionally may begin after a betrothal and may conclude with the celebration of marriage. A courtship may be an informal and private m ...
displays include touching bills and following one another in elaborate flight patterns. Once the pre-laying period begins, males will constantly guard their mates by knocking other males away with their bills. The pair will mate up to 80 times in a 30-day period to ensure fertilization. Females will sometimes encourage other males to engage in copulation to guarantee successful fecundity.
Throughout the pre-laying period, razorbills will socialize in large numbers. Two types of socializing occur: large groups dive and swim together in circles repeatedly and all rise up to the surface, heads first and bills open; secondly, large groups swim in a line weaving across each other in the same direction.
Nest sites
Nest site choice is very important for these birds to ensure the protection of the young from predators. Unlike
murres
''Uria'' is a genus of seabirds in the auk family known in Britain as guillemots, in most of North America as murres, and in Newfoundland and Labrador as turr. These are medium-sized birds with mainly brown or black plumage in the breeding s ...
, nest sites are not immediately alongside the sea on open cliff ledges but at least away, in crevices on cliffs or among boulders. Nests are usually confined among the rocks or slightly more open. Some sites are along ledges, however, crevice sites seem to be more successful due to reduced predation.
The mating pair will often reuse the same site every year. Since chicks cannot fly, nests close to the sea provide easy access when leaving the colony. Generally, razorbills do not build a nest; however, some pairs often use their bills to drag material upon which to lay their egg. Nest under a boulder, rarely on an exposed ledge, may use Puffin or rabbit burrow. Although gregarious in breeding colonies, nests are not contiguous, but some meters apart, resulting in less aggression than in Guillemot colonies.
Incubation and hatching
Females lay a single egg per year, usually from late April to May. The egg is an ovoid-pyramidal shape, cream color with has dark brown blotches. Incubation starts generally 48 hours after laying the egg. Females and males take turns incubating the egg several times daily for a total of approximately 35 days before hatching occurs. Razorbill chicks are semi-
precocial
In biology, altricial species are those in which the young are underdeveloped at the time of birth, but with the aid of their parents mature after birth. Precocial species are those in which the young are relatively mature and mobile from the mome ...
. During the first two days after hatching, the chick will spend the majority of its time under the parent's wing. There is always one parent at the nest site while the other goes to sea to collect food for the chick. The hatchling develops a complete sheath 10 days after hatching. After 17–23 days, the chick leaves the nest by jumping from a cliff, closely followed by the male parent, who will accompany the chick to sea. During this time, the male parent will dive more than the female parent.
Feeding
Razorbills dive deep into the sea using their semi-folded wings and their streamlined bodies to propel themselves toward their prey. They keep their feet spread. While diving, they rarely stay in groups but rather spread out to feed. The majority of their feeding occurs at a depth of but they have the ability to dive up to below the surface. During a single dive, an individual can capture and swallow many schooling fish, depending on their size. Razorbills spend approximately 44% of their time foraging at sea.
When feeding their young, they generally deliver small loads. Adults will mainly feed only one fish to their chick with high feeding deliveries at dawn and decreased feeding 4 hours before dark. Females will generally feed their chicks more frequently than males. They may well fly more than out to sea to feed when during egg incubation, but when provisioning the young, they forage closer to the nesting grounds, some away, and often in shallower water.
Diet
The diet of razorbill is very similar to that of a common murre or common guillemot. It consists generally of mid-water schooling fish such as
capelin
The capelin or caplin (''Mallotus villosus'') is a small forage fish of the smelt family found in the North Atlantic, North Pacific and Arctic oceans. In summer, it grazes on dense swarms of plankton at the edge of the ice shelf. Larger capelin ...
,
sand lance
A sand lance or sandlance is a fish belonging to the family Ammodytidae. Several species of sand lances are commonly known as "sand eels", though they are not related to true eels. Another variant name is launce, and all names of the fish are ...
, juvenile
cod
Cod is the common name for the demersal fish genus '' Gadus'', belonging to the family Gadidae. Cod is also used as part of the common name for a number of other fish species, and one species that belongs to genus ''Gadus'' is commonly not call ...
,
sprats
''Sprattus'' is a genus of small oily fish of the family Clupeidae. They are more usually known by their common name, sprats. There are five species in the genus.
Species
* '' Sprattus antipodum'' (Hector, 1872) (New Zealand blueback sprat)
...
crustaceans
Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean gro ...
and
polychaetes
Polychaeta () is a paraphyletic class of generally marine annelid worms, commonly called bristle worms or polychaetes (). Each body segment has a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia that bear many bristles, called chaetae, which are made ...
. A recent study suggests the razorbill's diet is affected by local and regional environmental conditions in the marine environment
Predators
The adult razorbill has several predators which include:
polar bears
The polar bear (''Ursus maritimus'') is a hypercarnivorous bear whose native range lies largely within the Arctic Circle, encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the largest extant bear specie ...
,
great black-backed gull
The great black-backed gull (''Larus marinus'') is the largest member of the gull family. Described by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as "the king of the Atlantic waterfront", it is a very aggressive hunter, pirate, and scavenger. It breeds on t ...
s,
peregrine falcons
The peregrine falcon (''Falco peregrinus''), also known as the peregrine, and historically as the duck hawk in North America, is a cosmopolitan bird of prey (raptor) in the family Falconidae. A large, crow-sized falcon, it has a blue-grey back, ...
crows
The Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station (CROWS) is a series of remote weapon stations used by the US military on its armored vehicles and ships. It allows weapon operators to engage targets without leaving the protection of their vehicle. ...
, and jackdaws. The general predators of their eggs are
gulls
Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the family Laridae in the suborder Lari (bird), Lari. They are most closely related to the terns and Skimmer (bird), skimmers and only distantly related to auks, and even more distantly to waders ...
and ravens. The best chance for adult razorbill to avoid predation is by diving.
Arctic fox
The Arctic fox (''Vulpes lagopus''), also known as the white fox, polar fox, or snow fox, is a small fox native to the Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere and common throughout the Arctic tundra biome. It is well adapted to living in ...
es can also predate significant numbers of adults, eggs, and chicks in some years.
Razorbill eggs were collected until the late 1920s in
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
's remote St Kilda islands by their men scaling the cliffs. The eggs were buried in St Kilda
peat
Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and is the most efficient ...
ash to be eaten through the cold, northern winters. The eggs were considered to taste like
duck eggs
Humans and human ancestors have scavenged and eaten animal eggs for millions of years. Humans in Southeast Asia had domesticated chickens and harvested their eggs for food by 1,500 BCE. The most widely consumed eggs are those of fowl, especia ...
in taste and nourishment.The Daily Mail April 18 1930: article by Susan Rachel Ferguson
Conservation and management
In the early 20th century, razorbills were harvested for eggs, meat, and feathers. This greatly decreased the global population. In 1917, they were finally protected by the “Migratory Bird Treaty Act” which reduced hunting. Other threatening interactions include oil pollution which can damage breeding sites. Any damage to breeding sites can reduce possible nest sites and affect the reproduction of the species.
Commercial fishing
Commercial fishing is the activity of catching fish and other seafood for commercial profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who practice it as an industry must often ...
affects populations because razorbills can become tangled in nets. Overfishing also decreases the abundance of razorbill prey and thus affects their survival.
Evolution and prehistoric species
While the razorbill is the only living species, the genus ''Alca'' had a much higher diversity in the
Pliocene
The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58great auk in the genus ''Alca'', instead of ''Pinguinus''. A number of fossil forms have been found:
* ''Alca "antiqua"'' (Late Miocene/Early Pliocene of Lee Creek Mine, US)
* ''Alca'' sp. (Late Miocene/Early Pliocene of Lee Creek Mine, US) - possibly ''A. stewarti''
* ''Alca stewarti'' (Kattendijk Sands Early Pliocene of Belgium)
* ''Alca ausonia'' (Yorktown Early Pliocene of Lee Creek Mine, US - Middle Pliocene of Italy)
* ''Alca'' sp. (Puerto de Mazarrón Pliocene of El Alamillo, Spain) - may be ''A. antiqua'' or ''A. ausonia''
As far as is known, the genus ''Alca'' seems to have evolved in the western North Atlantic or the present-day Caribbean like most other
Alcini
An auk or alcid is a bird of the family Alcidae in the order Charadriiformes. The alcid family includes the murres, guillemots, auklets, puffins, and murrelets. The word "auk" is derived from Icelandic ''álka'', from Old Norse ''alka'' (a ...
. Its ancestors would have reached these waters through the still-open Isthmus of Panama during the
Miocene
The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...