NESTING SEABIRDS OF THE GULF OF ALASKA 



67 



numerous than has been thought. Its habits 

 are secretive enough so that it could easily 

 escape notice. 



Because the parakeet auklet nests predomi- 

 nantly under boulders, it probably was not 

 much affected by fox. Rats would certainly 

 have reduced its numbers wherever these 

 were introduced into its breeding habitat. We 

 have no data to tell us whether there may 

 have been population fluctuations in the past, 

 but there undoubtedly were at least minor 

 ones locally after rats were introduced. 



Crested Auklet (Aethia pygmaea) 



Udvardy (1963) shows the breeding range of 

 the crested auklet as extending from southern 

 Kodiak Island westward. Within the northern 

 and western Gulf of Alaska, it is certainly 

 most abundant in the eastern Shumagin 

 Islands. 



Isleib saw this auklet in Prince William 

 Sound 3 times during the winter of 1972-73. 

 These are the only records he was aware of for 

 that area (Isleib and Kessel 1973). David 

 Roseneau (Isleib and Kessel 1973) saw several 

 in Amatuli Cove, Barren Islands, in June 

 1965. I observed one in the vicinity of Cape 

 Spencer in August 1973. 



Friedmann (1935) listed the crested auklet 

 as a breeding bird at Kodiak, but considered it 

 to be much more abundant as a wintering 

 bird. Townsend (1913) has provided us with a 

 vivid description of the myriads of crested 

 auklets he encountered at Yukon Harbor, 

 Little Koniuji Island. Gabrielson and Lincoln 

 (1959) noted large numbers of crested auklet 

 around Simeonof and Bird islands in the Shu- 

 magin Islands in 1946 and stated that the 

 Yukon Harbor colony was still thriving. 



Crested auklets were not encountered on 

 the 1973 FWS reconnaissance survey until we 

 reached the Shumagin Islands. They were 

 abundant only at the southeastern end of 

 Little Koniuji, where we encountered perhaps 

 10,000 in Yukon Harbor and more than 50,000 

 in a small cove directly south of Yukon Har- 

 bor on the opposite side of the island. As 

 numerous as they were, they did not match 

 Townsend's myriads or even come close to his 

 assessment that they "were here more 

 numerous than the 'choochkies' at St. 

 George." St. George Island in the Pribilofs is 

 famous for its least auklets which, in the past, 



have been estimated to number as high as 36 

 million (Peterson and Fisher 1955). The num- 

 bers there today do not even approach this 

 level and we have no way of knowing how 

 abundant they were when Townsend visited 

 the Pribilofs, but I think it is safe to say that 

 they probably numbered in the millions. There 

 are probably more crested auklets than we ob- 

 served on Little Koniuji, but there is certainly 

 no longer anything approaching millions of 

 birds. Properly pronounced, Koniuji is the 

 Aleut name for the crested auklet, so we can 

 assume that the original inhabitants were im- 

 pressed by its numbers. 



During the 1973 FWS survey we did not see 

 crested auklets at either Simeonof or Bird is- 

 lands. On the overgrazed and cattle- trampled 

 Simeonof it does not seem possible that any 

 could still exist. 



I suspect that a cattleman's greed has been 

 the undoing of any crested auklets that may 

 have nested on Simeonof Island. This would 

 not account for the loss of any colonies that 

 may have been on Bird Island, but the decay- 

 ing fox- trapper's cabin on that island un- 

 doubtedly tells the story. Churnabura, with 

 its feral cattle, presents much the same prob- 

 lem as Simeonof. As for Little Koniuji, have 

 horned puffins been partly responsible for the 

 decrease in crested auklets? The puffin colony 

 at the south end of Little Koniuji must be 

 exactly where Townsend's millions of crested 

 auklets once nested. 



Least Auklet (Aethia pusilla) 



No least auklets were encountered in FWS 

 surveys in the Gulf of Alaska in the early 

 1970's. Udvardy (1963) shows their breeding 

 range as starting well west in the Aleutians. 

 Gabrielson and Lincoln (1959) give the east- 

 ern limit of their breeding range as the Shu- 

 magin Islands. Bent (1963) listed their breed- 

 ing range as extending east to Kodiak Island, 

 and Friedmann (1935) knew of only a few 

 specimens taken in the winter from Kodiak. 

 Perhaps least auklets nested somewhere in 

 the western Gulf of Alaska, and they may 

 still, but at the moment we have no evidence 

 to prove that they do. 



Rhinoceros Auklet (Cerorhinca monocerata) 



Udvardy (1963) would have us believe that 

 the rhinoceros auklet did not nest between 



