Short-tailed Shearwater (Ardenna tenuirostris) Trace Element (TE) concentrations of muscle

Maintenance and Update Frequency: notPlanned | Statement: We purchased 38 whole frozen Short-tailed Shearwater fledglings (approx. 80-90 days old) from harvesters on Great Dog Island in the Furneaux Group, Tasmania, Australia in late-April 2017. We recorded standard bird morphometric measurements (mass (± 10 g), wing chord (unflattened and straightened; ± 1 mm), culmen (± 0.1 mm mm), head + bill (± 0.1 mm)). Ingested plastic items including micro-plastic (>1 µm) and visible macro-plastic (> 5mm diameter), from the proventriculus and gizzard were categorised by type and colour. | Credit Research was undertaken with approval from the University of Tasmania Animal Ethics Committee (Permit No. A16357) and the Tasmanian Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water, and the Environment (DPIPWE). All state and national animal ethics guidelines and regulations were followed. Shearwaters were purchased from local mutton-birders at market prices, collected under individually held recreational permits issued by DPIPWE. We thank the many volunteers who dedicated their time to this project, particularly the Tasmanian Indigenous mutton-birding community who provided Yolla samples for this study, we pay our respects to their elders; past, present and emerging. Thanks to the University of Tasmania’s Central Sciences Lab for analytical expertise and conducting the ICP-MS analyses. Financial support was provided by C. Noone, the Living Ocean Foundation, Detached Foundation, BirdLife Tasmania and the Australian Wildlife Society (University Student Research Grant 2017). | Trace element (TE) concentrations of juvenile Short-tailed Shearwaters collected on Great Dog Island, Tasmanian in 2017.