Kyle Elliott, a PhD student at the University of Manitoba and the study's lead author, said, "Most of what we know about aging is from studies of short-lived round worms, fruit flies, mice, and chickens, but long-lived animals age differently. We need data from long-lived animals, and one good example is long-lived seabirds."
Elliott also said, "Not only do these birds live very long, but they maintain their energetic lifestyle in a very extreme environment into old age."
This clip was filmed at the Brünnich's guillemots research camp on Coats Island, northern Hudson Bay in July-August 2011, with a few stills from earlier years.
(Photo Credit: Tony Gaston)
One bird, nicknamed 'Wayne Gretzky' by the researchers (after the Canadian hockey great who played 20 seasons and because the bird's identification band colours matched Gretzky's team colours), raised young for 18 consecutive years.
Over 4 consecutive summers, researchers periodically tracked Brünnich's guillemots' fitness, recording how deep and for how long they would dive for prey, how far and fast they would fly, and how much energy they expended on these activities. They looked for changes in the birds' behaviour and metabolism.
These are Brünnich's guillemots on an ice floe at Coats Island in northern Hudson Bay, Canada.
(Photo Credit: Kyle Elliott)
Brünnich's guillemots have the highest flight costs of any bird.
(Photo Credit: Kyle Elliott)
Source: Society for Experimental Biology