LEEDS, England, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- One of the United Kingdom's best-known seabird species, the guillemot, is increasingly killing unattended chicks from neighboring nests due to food shortages.
Researchers at the University of Leeds and the Center for Ecology & Hydrology in Edinburgh say they have observed a dramatic increase in the number of adult guillemots attacking chicks of the same species.
Hundreds of such attacks have recently occurred, and many were fatal.
The researchers said their findings indicate social harmony -- even in long-established colonies -- can break down under certain conditions, such as the possibility of starvation.
"The attacks were brutal and usually involved more than one adult as chicks fled from the initial attacking neighbor" said lead author Kate Ashbrook of the University of Leeds. "More than two thirds of all documented chick deaths in the sample area were caused by attacks from neighboring parents. Yet this particular colony has been monitored for almost 30 years, and in that time chick attacks have been very rare occurrences."
The study appears in the online issue of the Royal Society journal Biology Letters.
