Seabirds Fly Into Hurricanes for Survival Advantage

Researchers have discovered that Desertas petrels, a rare seabird from Portugal’s Bugio Island, exhibit an extraordinary behavior of flying towards hurricanes rather than avoiding them. Unlike other birds that evade storms, these pigeon-sized seabirds capitalize on the ocean mixing caused by hurricanes, which brings their prey—squid, small fish, and crustaceans—to the surface. The study, published in Current Biology, tracked 33 Desertas petrels using GPS during multiple Atlantic hurricane seasons between 2015 and 2019. Findings revealed that the birds followed the cooler sea temperatures left by the storms, traveling up to 1,512 miles behind them. This behavior, previously undocumented in birds, allows the petrels to hunt more efficiently. The discovery has sparked interest among scientists to investigate whether other predators also exploit the ocean mixing caused by hurricanes.