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  • During several austral summers covering a 13 year period, we collected a random sample of body feathers from chicks of 11 sympatric species of Procellariiform (wandering albatross Diomedea exulans -79 individuals in total-, black-browed albatross Thalassarche melanophris - 51-, grey-headed albatross T. chrysostoma - 58 -, light-mantled sooty albatross Phoebetria palpebrata - 34 -, northern giant petrel Macronectes halli - 59 -, southern giant petrel M. giganteus - 60 -, white-chinned petrel Procellaria aequinoctialis - 39 -, blue petrel Halobaena caerulea - 19 - , Antarctic prion Pachyptila desolata - 19 -, South Georgian diving petrel Pelecanoides georgicus - 2 - and common diving petrel P. urinatrix - 6 -) to analyse Delta15N and Delta13C.

  • The diets of Macaroni Penguin (Eudyptes chrysolophus) and Gentoo Penguin (Pygoscelis papua) have been monitored on Bird Island since 1989. This dataset comprises data on composition of diet samples (Crustaceans, Cephalopod and fish) and measurements of krill carapaces, fish otoliths and squid beaks found in the samples. These measurements are used to estimate the length and weight of krill, fish and squid that have been consumed.

  • This dataset comprises the delta-13C and delta-15N stable isotopic information from two tissue samples (whole blood and mantle feathers) from 16 adults of 8 species of Southern Ocean procellariform collected at Bird Island, South Georgia during the austral summer 2001-2002. There have been numerous long-term research projects carried out at Bird Island under the auspices of the British Antarctic Survey, and this data represents one very small component that has been used to examine inter-specific competition in both the breeding and non-breeding periods. Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/d2c301d4-8a77-4571-9667-01168356a2d3

  • This dataset is a combination of data obtained from a longitudinal live trapping study of wild rodents in Wytham Woods, Oxford (51.796 N,-1.367 W); October 2015-18), a dissection study of rodents caught in the same woodland (October 2017-18), and a diet shift experiment on a captive colony of wood mice housed at the University of Edinburgh (May 2017). The longitudinal live trapping study dataset contains trapping data and data on the gut microbiome composition, diet and gut parasite infection of individually-identifiable rodents. Three species of rodents were trapped with Sherman live-traps fortnightly for 3 years: wood mice (Apodemus sylvaticus), yellow-necked mice (Apodemus flavicollis) and bank voles (Myodes glaerolus). Upon capture, they were injected with a passive integrated transponder (PIT) tag, measured, weighted, sexed, aged and a faecal sample was collected from individuals for microbiome, diet and parasite analyses. All rodents were released to their location of capture. The dissection study contains trapping data, gut microbiome and parasite infection data. Wood mice were trapped fortnightly for one year with Sherman live-traps at least 300m away from the longitudinal sampling grid. Individuals that had been captured and marked with a PIT tag as part of the longitudinal study were released along with other rodents species and juvenile or pregnant individuals (only non-marked adult wood mice were sampled). Wood mice were euthanized (with ethical approval) and their gastrointestinal tract dissected for counts of gut helminths. Samples from along the gastrointestinal tract were taken for gut microbiome analysis. The diet shift experiment dataset contains data on experimental diet treatments and gut microbiome composition of wood mice captively bred in a facility at the University of Edinburgh. Wood mice were given diets varying in the ratio of food supplementation (dried mealworm and/or peanut) and faecal samples taken periodically over 30 days to measure changes in gut microbiome composition and function. Samples for microbiome and diet characterization were stored without buffer at -80̊C. Samples for parasite detection were stored in 10% formalin and refrigerated at 4̊C. This work was funded by a NERC independent Research Fellowship. Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/4f454849-0d30-4c27-ad5b-d285e461bedc