The Balearic shearwater (''Puffinus mauretanicus'') is a medium-sized

shearwater Shearwaters are medium-sized long-winged seabirds in the petrel family Procellariidae. They have a global marine distribution, but are most common in temperate and cold waters, and are pelagic outside the breeding season. Description These tu ...

in the

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 envir ...

family ''Procellariidae''. ''Puffinus'' is a

New Latin New Latin (also called Neo-Latin or Modern Latin) is the revival of Literary Latin used in original, scholarly, and scientific works since about 1500. Modern scholarly and technical nomenclature, such as in zoological and botanical taxonomy a ...

loanword based on the English "puffin" and its variants, that referred to the cured carcass of the fat nestling of the

Manx shearwater The Manx shearwater (''Puffinus puffinus'') is a medium-sized shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. The scientific name of this species records a name shift: Manx shearwaters were called Manks puffins in the 17th century. Puffin is an ...

, a former delicacy. The specific ''mauretanicus'' refers to

Mauretania Mauretania (; ) is the Latin name for a region in the ancient Maghreb. It stretched from central present-day Algeria westwards to the Atlantic, covering northern present-day Morocco, and southward to the Atlas Mountains. Its native inhabitants, ...

, an old name for an area of North Africa roughly corresponding to Morocco and Algeria.

Taxonomy

The Balearic shearwater was formerly described in 1921 by the English ornithologist

Percy Lowe Percy Roycroft Lowe (2 January 1870 – 18 August 1948) was an English surgeon and ornithologist. Life Lowe was born at Stamford, Lincolnshire and studied medicine at Jesus College, Cambridge. He served as a civil surgeon in the Second Boer ...

. He treated it as a

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

of the

and coined the trinomial name ''Puffinus puffinus mauretanicus''. The Balearic shearwater was long regarded a subspecies of the Manx shearwater. Following an initial split, it was held to be a subspecies of the "Mediterranean shearwater" for nearly ten more years, until it was resolved to be a distinct

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

, separate from the

yelkouan shearwater upright=0.8, Egg of the yelkouan shearwater The yelkouan shearwater, Levantine shearwater or Mediterranean shearwater (''Puffinus yelkouan'') is a medium-sized shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. It was formerly treated as a subspec ...

. It is the last

taxon In biology, a taxon ( back-formation from '' taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular n ...

of the ''Puffinus'' complex that was recognized as a separate entity. A

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

study published in 2021 found very little genetic difference between the Balearic shearwater and the yelkouan shearwater (''Puffinus yelkouan''). The authors of the study suggested that these two taxa might be better considered as

conspecific Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species. Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organis ...

. It appears to belong to a group of

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 and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...

and adjacent

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 a ...

species which includes the

and one to three prehistorically

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

taxa, Hole's and possibly also Olson's shearwater and an undescribed form of unclear distinctness from

Menorca Menorca or Minorca (from la, Insula Minor, , smaller island, later ''Minorica'') is one of the Balearic Islands located in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to Spain. Its name derives from its size, contrasting it with nearby Majorca. Its capi ...

. Hole's shearwater may be the closest known relative of ''P. mauretanicus''. The two living Mediterranean lineages had probably separated before the end of the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58mya), as indicated by molecular differences and the

Ibiza Ibiza (natively and officially in ca, Eivissa, ) is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea off the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. It is from the city of Valencia. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, in Spain. Its la ...

n fossil '' Puffinus nestori'' from the Late Pliocene or Early

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the '' Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed i ...

, which may have been the direct ancestor of the present species.

Description

Balearic shearwater is in length and has a wingspan of . It has the typically "shearing" flight of the genus, dipping from side to side on stiff wings with few wingbeats, the wingtips almost touching the water. This bird looks like a flying cross, with its wing held at right angles to the body, and it changes from dark brown to dirty white as the dark upperparts and paler undersides are alternately exposed as it travels low over the sea. Apart from its less contrasting

plumage Plumage ( "feather") is a layer of feathers that covers a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage differ between species and subspecies and may vary with age classes. Within species, ...

, this species is very similar to the Manx and yelkouan shearwaters found elsewhere in the

. At least one mixed breeding colony of Balearic and yelkouan shearwaters exists on

, and the species' winter ranges overlap in the Central Mediterranean; for scientific purposes at least, a combination of morphological characteristics and

DNA sequence DNA sequencing is the process of determining the nucleic acid sequence – the order of nucleotides in DNA. It includes any method or technology that is used to determine the order of the four bases: adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine. The ...

data is suggested to identify the species.

Distribution and habitat

This species breeds on islands and coastal cliffs in the

Balearic islands The Balearic Islands ( es, Islas Baleares ; or ca, Illes Balears ) are an archipelago in the Balearic Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The archipelago is an autonomous community and a province of Spain; its capital i ...

. Most winter in that sea, but some

enter Enter or ENTER may refer to: * Enter key, on computer keyboards * Enter, Netherlands, a village * ''Enter'' (magazine), an American technology magazine for children 1983–1985 * ''Enter'' (Finnish magazine), a Finnish computer magazine * Ent ...

the Atlantic in late summer, reaching north to

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 is ...

and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

Behaviour

This is a gregarious species, which can be seen in large numbers from

boat A boat is a watercraft of a large range of types and sizes, but generally smaller than a ship, which is distinguished by its larger size, shape, cargo or passenger capacity, or its ability to carry boats. Small boats are typically found on inl ...

s or headlands, especially in autumn. It is silent at sea, but at night the breeding colonies are alive with raucous cackling calls, higher pitched than the Manx shearwater's.

Breeding

This species nests in burrows and

cave A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as se ...

s which are visited only at night to avoid predation by large

gull Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the family Laridae in the suborder Lari. They are most closely related to the terns and skimmers and only distantly related to auks, and even more distantly to waders. Until the 21st centur ...

Feeding

The Balearic shearwater feeds on

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of liv ...

and

mollusc Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is est ...

s. It does not follow boats.

Conservation and threats

The Balearic shearwater is considered critically endangered with extinction by the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natur ...

. Recent models estimate a mean decrease of 7.4% per year and a mean extinction time of 40.4 years. This equates to an ongoing decline of more than 80% over the next three generations (54 years). It is under severe threat from the development of holiday resorts near its breeding sites. These can destroy or alter its natural breeding habitat by, for example, producing light pollution around nesting colonies. Predation from introduced animals such as

cat The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...

s and

rat Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents. Species of rats are found throughout the order Rodentia, but stereotypical rats are found in the genus '' Rattus''. Other rat genera include ''Neotoma'' (pack rats), ''Bandicota'' (bandicoo ...

s also cause problems. The discovery of yelkouan shearwaters in the Menorcan colony suggests that hybridization may also pose a problem. The Balearic shearwater is one of the species to which the

Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels The Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP) is a legally binding international agreement signed in 2001 and entered into force on 1 February 2004 when South Africa ratified as the fifth Party to the Agreement. It was crea ...

applies.

References

External links

BTO BirdFacts - Balearic shearwater
* ttps://www.flickr.com/search/groups/?w=42637302@N00&q=balearic+shearwater&m=pool Flickr Field Guide Birds of the WorldPhotographs
Oiseaux
{{Taxonbar, from=Q704081 Balearic shearwater Balearic shearwater Birds of Europe Birds of Ibiza Birds of North Africa Fauna of the Balearic Islands Balearic shearwater Balearic shearwater]