Your Neighbor is an Enemy: The Relation Between Consumption Frequency and the Distance from Food Source

e Brown skua is a top predator seabird. During the breeding season it feeds mainly on terrestrial resources, where the most recorded are penguins. e presence of Cape petrel in Brown skua chicks regurgitations was evaluated in relation to nesting distance to the Cape petrel colony at Elephant Island. A 45% rate of spontaneous regurgitations of Cape petrels was registered and this frequency was signi cantly related to nesting distance from the Cape petrel colony. Pygoscelis sp. remains were registered in just 15% of samples. Two hypotheses can be accepted, either it indicates that brown skuas are selecting nesting sites that are closer to Cape petrel colonies, or they are just acting opportunistically. An important observation is that penguins were not the most consumed seabird. Food consumption patches were di erent than expected, reinforcing the importance of more diet investigations.