Nazca Booby
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| iNazca Booby | ||||||||||||||
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| Sula granti Rothschild, 1902 |
The Nazca Booby Sula granti is a booby which is found in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
It was formerly regarded as a subspecies of the Masked Booby but following the publication of Pitman & Jehl 1998, the American Ornithologists Union split Nazca booby as a separate species.
Nazca boobies are known for practicing ritual siblicide. They lay two eggs, several days apart. If both eggs hatch, the elder chick will push its sibling out of the nest area, leaving it to die of thirst or cold. The parent booby will not intervene and the younger chick will inevitably die. It is believed that two eggs are laid so that one remains an insurance, should one be destroyed or killed early on as a chick.
[edit] References
- BirdLife International (2004). Sula granti. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 12 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
- PITMAN, R. L., AND J. R. JEHL. 1998. Geographic variation and reassessment of species limits in the "Masked" Boobies of the eastern Pacific Ocean. Wilson Bulletin 110:155-170
[edit] External links
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