Breeding birds can increase their foraging efforts to feed chicks after hatching. We investigated how chinstrap penguins (Pygoscelis antarctica) differ foraging diving behaviors with breeding stages. During incubation and chick-rearing period, from December 2015 to January 2016 on King George Island, Antarctica, diving characteristics of breeding chinstrap penguin parents were recorded by deploying GPS and Time-Depth Recorder (TDR). Our results showed that chinstrap penguins have wider-range diving areas and longer foraging trips during incubation period while they dive in on-shore areas for a short trip hours during chick-rearing period. In addition, chinstrap penguins exhibited deeper dive depths during chick-rearing than during incubation. Our results suggest that chinstrap parents change their foraging area and dive depth between incubation and chick-rearing, possibly due to the increased need of chick-feeding and the temporal changes in prey availability between the two reproduction stages.
Diving location and depth of breeding chinstrap penguins during incubation and chick-rearing period in King George Island, Antarctica
Document Number:
WG-EMM-17/P01
Submitted By:
Dr Seok-Gwan Choi (Korea, Republic of)
Approved By:
Dr Seok-Gwan Choi (Korea, Republic of)
Agenda Item(s)
Publication:
Kor. J. Orni., 23 (1) (2016): 41–48
Abstract