Stomach oil is the light oil composed of neutral dietary lipids found in the proventriculus (fore-gut) of birds in the

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of d ...

Procellariiformes. All

albatross Albatrosses, of the biological family Diomedeidae, are large seabirds related to the procellariids, storm petrels, and diving petrels in the order Procellariiformes (the tubenoses). They range widely in the Southern Ocean and the North Pacifi ...

es, procellarids (gadfly petrels and shearwaters) and

northern Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a ra ...

and austral storm petrels use the oil. The only Procellariiformes that do not are the diving petrels. The chemical make up of stomach oil varies from species to species and between individuals, but almost always contains both wax esters and triglycerides. Other compounds found in stomach oil include

glycerol ether Glycerol (), also called glycerine in British English and glycerin in American English, is a simple triol compound. It is a colorless, odorless, viscous liquid that is sweet-tasting and non-toxic. The glycerol backbone is found in lipids known ...

s, pristane and squalene. Stomach oil has low viscosity and will solidify into a hard wax if allowed to cool. It was once thought that stomach oil was a secretion of the proventriculus, but it is now known to be a residue of the diet created by digestion of the prey items such as krill,

squid True squid are molluscs with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight arms, and two tentacles in the superorder Decapodiformes, though many other molluscs within the broader Neocoleoidea are also called squid despite not strictly fitting t ...

copepod Copepods (; meaning "oar-feet") are a group of small crustaceans found in nearly every freshwater and saltwater habitat (ecology), habitat. Some species are planktonic (inhabiting sea waters), some are benthos, benthic (living on the ocean floor) ...

s and fish. It is thought to serve several functions for Procellariiformes, primarily as an energy store; its calorific value is around 40 MJ/kg (9.6 kcal per gram), which is only slightly lower than the value for diesel oil. For this reason a great deal more energy can be stored in oil form as opposed to undigested prey. This can be a real advantage for species that range over huge distances to provide food for hungry chicks, or as a store for lean times when ranging across the sea looking for patchy areas of prey. Surface nesting petrels and

can eject this oil out of their mouths (not nostrils, as has sometimes been suggested) towards attacking predators or conspecific rivals. This oil can be deadly to birds, as it can cause matting of the feathers leading to the loss of flight or water repellency. Against threatening

mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...

s (including humans) it is not outright dangerous, but due to its extremely offensive smell it is usually highly repulsive and liable to spoil a predator's hunting success for quite some time. The smell of the hydrophobic oil cannot be removed with water, and can persist (e.g. on clothing) for months or even years.

References

* Roby, Daniel D, Taylor, Jan R E, Place, Allen R (1997) "Significance of stomach oil for reproduction in seabirds: An interspecies cross-fostering experiment." ''The Auk'' 114 (4) 725–736

* Warham, J. (1976) "The Incidence, Function and ecological significance of petrel stomach oils." ''Proceedings of the New Zealand Ecological Society'' 24 84-9

{{Procellariiformes Procellariiformes Ornithology Oils