General
Seabirds were so famished they ate pumice stones before mass ‘wreck’
When millions of dead and dying sea birds washed or dragged themselves ashore on Australia’s east coast in 2013, scientists found something unexpected in their stomachs.
Key points:
- Necropsies revealed nearly 90 per cent of the birds had eaten pumice stone pebbles
- The birds had an average of four to five stones in their stomachs, some with many more.
- Scientists set to work to find out whether the stones were a cause or symptom of the birds’ starvation
The birds were short-tailed shearwaters — migratory ocean-going birds that spend the northern summer in the Arctic, before heading to southern Australia to breed, usually around September.
Necropsies revealed that nearly 90 per cent had eaten pumice stone pebbles — stones…
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