---
title: "Breeding Grey-headed Albatrosses feed their chicks better food than they consume themselves"
---

# Breeding Grey-headed Albatrosses feed their chicks better food than they consume themselves

A combined French and South African study published online in the journal *[Marine Biology](http://springerlink.com/content/100441/)* this month shows clear differences in diet quality between breeding Grey-headed Albatross *Thalassarche chrysostoma* and their chicks at South Africa's sub-Antarctic Marion Island in the southern Indian Ocean in April 2006.

  

 Diets of adults and chicks were assessed using stable isotope ratios and fatty acid profiles of blood and/or stomach oils, in addition to stomach content analysis.  Fish of the family Macrouridae and cephalopods (particularly the onychoteuthid squid *Kondakovia longimana*) were the primary prey, whereas crustaceans (Antarctic Krill *Euphausia superba*) represented a smaller proportion of the stomach contents.

  

 Chicks were found to be fed at a higher trophic level, receiving nutritious fish with adults keeping much of the less nutritious zooplankton for themselves.

  ![](https://www.acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Albatrosses/G/Grey-headed-Albatross-fledgling_by_Marienne_de_Villiers_panorama.jpg "A fledgling Grey-headed Albatross at Marion Island.  Photograph by Marienne de Villiers")

   

  

 **Reference:**

  

 Richoux, N.B., Jaquemet, S., Bonnevie, B.T., Cherel, Y. & McQuaid, C.D. 2010.  Trophic ecology of Grey-headed Albatrosses from Marion Island, Southern Ocean: insights from stomach contents and diet tracers.  *Marine Biology*  [DOI 10.1007/s00227-010-1488-y](http://springerlink.com/content/lt5n35420m885535/?p=33f5c7b9f86144c8a78c88436be40f25&pi=0).

  

 *John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 30 April 2010*