The Storm Junkies

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Most coastal creatures avoid hurricanes, scrambling to take shelter as the monster storm approaches.

The Desertas petrels, a seabird the size of a pigeon, however, chase them across the Atlantic, scientists recently found.

“When we saw the data, we nearly fell off our chairs,” lead study author Francesco Ventura said. “This is the first time we have observed this behavior.”

Until now, the consensus had been that seabirds either avoided hurricanes at all costs or flew into the eye, where the winds are calmer. But Desertas petrels, from the western coast of North Africa, fly right behind the storms, sometimes for days on end and over thousands of miles.

During hurricane seasons in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2019, Ventura and his team placed GPS trackers on a few dozen birds to analyze their foraging behavior.

Desertas petrels feed on small fish, squid, and crustaceans, which usually roam in waters between 600 and 3,000 feet deep, too deep for the birds to dive. The researchers found in 2020 that the birds wait until nighttime when their prey moves up to the surface.

Then, last year, Ventura compared his data with hurricane maps. That’s when it clicked.

Associate scientist Caroline Ummenhofer, Ventura’s colleague at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, confirmed that the petrels followed the paths of hurricanes. “When you overlay the petrels’ foraging trips on top of average winds, it’s a very close match,” she said.

The scientists realized that the birds enjoy the benefits of ocean mixing – when strong winds mix warmer surface-level water with cooler water from below. They face waves up to 26 feet tall and wind speeds of 62 mph because they know they will be rewarded with a lot of food.

“It makes sense that some animals, including these petrels, have learned to take advantage of that (ocean) mixing,” Don Lyons, part of the bird conservation group Audubon Seabird Institute, told the Washington Post. “What’s surprising, perhaps, is just how closely they follow the storm.”