Seasonal importance of oceanic myctophids in king penguin diet at Crozet Islands

Cherel, Yves; Verdon, C.; Ridoux, Vincent

doi:10.1007/bf00238362

Cited by 53 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Myctophid fish constitute the main prey of king penguins (e.g. Cherel et al 1993). During winter, these fish are found at a much greater depth in the polar frontal zone (i.e.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploitation of distant marginal ice zones by king penguins during winter

Bost

Charrassin

Clerquin³

et al. 2004

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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We investigated the use of Antarctic waters by king penguins in a 2 yr study based on the satellite tracking of 10 penguins from the Crozet Islands (SW Indian Ocean). All the penguins travelled towards the pack ice, with 3 of them ending their journey at the edge between the marginal ice and the dense pack ice. The mean maximum foraging range and minimal distance travelled were 1620 and 4095 km, respectively. The effect of the satellite transmitter (PTT) attachment on foraging trip duration and colony attendance was much more important in winter in comparison to the summer. The penguins spent around 24% of their trip at sea in the marginal ice zone. They explored the ice-covered habitat non-randomly as revealed by compositional analysis. The marginal ice was more used than free ice and floes areas. The strategy of travelling towards the marginal ice zone during winter ensures that the penguins have access to predictable feeding areas at a time when food availability is very low in the polar frontal zone. The diet of king penguins when foraging in Antarctic waters is unknown but may be different to their summer food at the Polar Front. KEY WORDS: Feeding ecology · Satellite tracking · King penguins · Marginal ice zoneResale or republication not permitted without written consent of the publisher

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“…Myctophid fish constitute the main prey of king penguins (e.g. Cherel et al 1993). During winter, these fish are found at a much greater depth in the polar frontal zone (i.e.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploitation of distant marginal ice zones by king penguins during winter

Bost

Charrassin

Clerquin³

et al. 2004

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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“…Additionally, differences in strategies when foraging for themselves or for the chicks may result from different nutritional requirements, such as higher levels of proteins needed for chick growth (Partridge and Green 1985). For instance, in King Penguins, the winter diet of the chicks appears to rely mostly upon cephalopods caught over the continental shelf, whereas parents hunting for themselves do so much further away from the island on a combination of cephalopods and high-protein myctophids (Cherel et al 1993). Parents may thus target different locations to forage on different prey depending on whether food is to be allocated to the chicks or themselves.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plasticity in foraging strategies of inshore birds: how Little Penguins maintain body reserves while feeding offspring

Saraux

Robinson-Laverick

Maho

et al. 2011

Ecology

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Abstract. Breeding animals face important time and energy constraints when caring for themselves and their offspring. For long-lived species, life-history theory predicts that parents should favor survival over current reproductive attempts, thus investing more into their own maintenance than the provisioning of their young. In seabirds, provisioning strategies may additionally be influenced by the distance between breeding sites and foraging areas, and offshore and inshore species should thus exhibit different strategies. Here, we examine the provisioning strategies of an inshore seabird using a long-term data set on more than 200 Little Penguins, Eudyptula minor. They alternated between two consecutive long and several short foraging trips all along chick rearing, a strategy almost never observed for inshore animals. Short trips allowed for regular provisioning of the chicks (high feeding frequency and larger meals), whereas long trips were performed when parent body mass was low and enabled them to rebuild their reserves, suggesting that adult body condition may be a key factor in initiating long trips. Inshore seabirds do use dual strategies of alternating short and long trips, but from our data, on a simpler and less flexible way than for offshore birds.

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“…No time lag was found between annual breeding success and environmental parameters (Table 1), certainly because chick food depends mainly on the availability of resources produced close to the colony during the year. During the summer, king penguins are feeding principally on mesopelagic myctophids (22) …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…During the winter, king penguin's prey fish are found at a much greater depth in the PFZ than in summer (25) and are consequently unavailable for the birds which must therefore find an alternative resource. Accordingly, to feed their chick during winter, breeding penguins forage predominantly on small-and medium-sized juvenile squids spawned the previous spring (24) in the outer shelf, upper slope, and oceanic areas in the close vicinity of Crozet Islands (22). Low [Chla] around Crozet Archipelago, concomitant with negative SOI, might impact the fecundity and the growth of the squids, hence reducing the winter chick provisioning.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Indeed, during the winter, breeding birds leave the PFZ foraging area to spend a substantial proportion of their time at sea below the northern sea ice limit (13) (56-57°S, i.e., MIZ). King penguin diet in this area is still unknown, but a study suggests that they compensate for the limited access to myctophids in winter by shifting their diet to Euphausia superba Krill species (13), on which they might rely to replenish their body fuels in distant areas (22) such as the MIZ. Consequently, 1 year after a warm event, king penguins might increase their energy expenditure for foraging (12) because of the poor prey abundance (krill or myctophid species) in the MIZ at the detriment of their survival the following year.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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King penguin population threatened by Southern Ocean warming

Bohec

Durant

Gauthier‐Clerc

et al. 2008

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

119

113

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Seabirds are sensitive indicators of changes in marine ecosystems and might integrate and/or amplify the effects of climate forcing on lower levels in food chains. Current knowledge on the impact of climate changes on penguins is primarily based on Antarctic birds identified by using flipper bands. Although flipper bands have helped to answer many questions about penguin biology, they were shown in some penguin species to have a detrimental effect. Here, we present for a Subantarctic species, king penguin ( Aptenodytes patagonicus ), reliable results on the effect of climate on survival and breeding based on unbanded birds but instead marked by subcutaneous electronic tags. We show that warm events negatively affect both breeding success and adult survival of this seabird. However, the observed effect is complex because it affects penguins at several spatio/temporal levels. Breeding reveals an immediate response to forcing during warm phases of El Niño Southern Oscillation affecting food availability close to the colony. Conversely, adult survival decreases with a remote sea-surface temperature forcing (i.e., a 2-year lag warming taking place at the northern boundary of pack ice, their winter foraging place). We suggest that this time lag may be explained by the delay between the recruitment and abundance of their prey, adjusted to the particular 1-year breeding cycle of the king penguin. The derived population dynamic model suggests a 9% decline in adult survival for a 0.26°C warming. Our findings suggest that king penguin populations are at heavy extinction risk under the current global warming predictions.

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Seasonal importance of oceanic myctophids in king penguin diet at Crozet Islands

Cited by 53 publications

References 9 publications

Exploitation of distant marginal ice zones by king penguins during winter

Exploitation of distant marginal ice zones by king penguins during winter

Plasticity in foraging strategies of inshore birds: how Little Penguins maintain body reserves while feeding offspring

King penguin population threatened by Southern Ocean warming

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