Antarctic seabirds use teamwork to survive in a frozen desert

The Antarctic Ocean seems silent and empty at first glance, yet beneath its icy surface lies a world alive with motion. Seabirds slice through the freezing air, seals dart upward, and whales emerge from the deep, all converging at once to feed on tiny krill.

This moment of chaos is perfectly timed, as if choreographed by nature itself. But how do so many different animals find the same feast in such a vast, unforgiving landscape?

“It’s hard to get across just how forbidding this environment is,” said Sönke Johnsen, a professor of biology at Duke University Trinity School of Arts & Sciences.

But yet, even in one of the harshest ecosystems on Earth, life thrives despite the odds.

How seabirds find food

The secret lies in cooperation, not coincidence. In a recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers explored how Antarctic seabirds work together when searching for food.

Gabrielle Nevitt, a sensory ecologist from the University of California, Davis, has spent years investigating how birds sense and respond to environmental cues in the Southern Ocean.

Some seabirds, such as petrels and albatrosses, rely on their sense of smell. They follow a chemical scent known as dimethyl sulfide (DMS), which rises from the water where krill gather.

This invisible trail guides them across miles of open sea. Other seabirds, flying higher above, don’t detect the scent directly. Instead, they watch the behavior of these “smellers” below, following them to potential feeding zones.

“Exploiting food is probably very competitive, but finding it is cooperative,” said Nevitt. This delicate balance between rivalry and teamwork helps ensure survival in one of the planet’s harshest regions.

Simulating seabird teamwork

Studying this phenomenon in the field is no simple task. Tracking birds across the Southern Ocean requires immense effort and precision.

That challenge led Nevitt to collaborate with Jesse Granger, a postdoctoral scholar at Duke University. The pair met during a research course in Sweden, where Granger offered a fresh perspective: what if the birds’ interactions could be simulated through computer modeling?

Granger set out to recreate the Antarctic skies in a virtual world. “You treat each animal sort of like it’s a video game character,” she explained. “You give it rules about how it should behave and then you get this emergent behavior.”

The simulation allowed researchers to test countless scenarios. By adjusting how many birds used scent versus sight, and how they responded to one another, they could observe patterns that would be nearly impossible to capture in real life.

Why teamwork helps survival

When the models ran, a fascinating pattern emerged. Flocks that combined both scent-guided and sight-guided birds consistently located food faster and more efficiently than those relying on only one sensory method.

Even a few scent-trackers among many visual hunters dramatically improved success rates. The results revealed how crucial diversity is within these flocks.

“The whole group does better when it’s a mixture of different species using different strategies to forage,” said Granger. Her words emphasize how every role matters, no matter how small.

If the balance of species tips too far in one direction, the whole system becomes unstable. “If you reduce past a certain tipping point in size or in proportion, then the whole group ends up collapsing,” Granger added.

This insight holds great importance for conservation. Protecting just one species is not enough; preserving the relationships between them ensures the ecosystem’s resilience.

What nature teaches us

Beyond conservation, the research sheds light on collective behavior found across nature, including human societies. Just as seabirds coordinate without a leader, people often act in sync without conscious planning.

“When we go to the state fair, nobody knows where the entrance is,” said Johnsen. Yet somehow, crowds move together until they find the way in.

This idea mirrors how a few individuals sensing subtle cues can guide the many. It’s a reminder that cooperation doesn’t always require communication – it can emerge naturally when individuals follow shared signals.

Seabirds survive through teamwork

The Antarctic ecosystem shows how survival depends on collaboration shaped by evolution. Each bird plays a role in detecting and signaling opportunity, much like neurons in a larger brain.

The study’s findings help explain not only how seabirds thrive in the frozen south but also how complex systems – from flocks and schools to human crowds – coordinate without central control.

In the end, this research reveals more than patterns of animal behavior. It speaks to a broader truth about life: progress depends on diversity, cooperation, and the balance between competition and unity.

Even in the most barren seas, shared awareness helps life find its way forward.

The study is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 

—–

Like what you read? Subscribe to our newsletter for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates. 

Check us out on EarthSnap, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

—–