One good tern disturbs another

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2023-10-23 03:00

New Zealand

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New Zealand's most endangered bird, the fairy tern/tara iti is more likely to have its nests bothered by its neighbours, than by humans or other animals, new research finds. With only around 40 tara iti remaining, researchers wanted to find out why their breeding success has been so poor, and have investigated how often 11 nesting pairs of fairy terns were disturbed. They say that while the disturbances from fellow tara iti was high, the short duration of their study means it's unclear whether these in-species disturbances had an effect on how often they could feed their chicks.