Common seabird tick vs Gray-headed Flying Fox

Ixodes uriae compared with Pteropus poliocephalus

Key Differences

• Common seabird tick is Not Evaluated while Gray-headed Flying Fox is Vulnerable.

Taxonomic Classification

Rank	Common seabird tick	Gray-headed Flying Fox
Kingdom same	Animalia (Animals)	Animalia (Animals)
Phylum	Arthropoda (Arthropods)	Chordata (Chordates)
Class	Arachnida (Arachnids)	Mammalia (Mammals)
Order	Ixodida (Ixodida)	Chiroptera (Bats)
Family	Ixodidae	Pteropodidae (Fruit Bats)
Genus	Ixodes	Pteropus (Flying Foxes)
Species	Ixodes uriae	Pteropus poliocephalus

Evolutionary Relationship

Common seabird tick and Gray-headed Flying Fox share a common ancestor at the Kingdom level: Animalia. (Animals)

Conservation Status

Common seabird tick

NE — Not Evaluated

Gray-headed Flying Fox

VU — Vulnerable

Physical Characteristics

Attribute	Common seabird tick	Gray-headed Flying Fox
Diet	—	—
Average Lifespan	—	—
Average Length	—	—
Average Weight	—	—

Habitat & Geographic Range

Common seabird tick

Habitat

Typically found in terrestrial habitats from forests to deserts.

Range

Distributed across Norway and Sweden.

Gray-headed Flying Fox

Habitat

Typically found in diverse terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.

Common seabird tick

<em>Ixodes uriae</em>, the common seabird tick, is a hard tick in the family Ixodidae, order Ixodida, distributed across subarctic and subantarctic regions with records from Norway and Sweden. This species is an obligate ectoparasite that specializes in feeding on colonial seabirds, including auks, penguins, and petrels, making it one of the few tick species with a genuinely circumpolar distribution tied to its avian hosts. <em>Ixodes uriae</em> typically infests birds in their nesting colonies, where dense aggregations and repeated site fidelity by hosts facilitate transmission. Beyond its direct parasitic impact, this tick serves as a vector for various pathogens, including Borrelia spirochetes and tick-borne encephalitis-related viruses, making it of scientific interest for disease ecology in seabird populations. The species has not been formally evaluated by the IUCN, and its conservation status remains Not Evaluated. Biological traits for this species remain poorly documented in the scientific literature, including comprehensive data on average lifespan under natural conditions, body dimensions across life stages, weight, and the full range of its host and pathogen associations.