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Annual and seasonal changes in foraging site and diving behavior in Adélie penguins

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Abstract

Foraging sites, diet, and diving behavior of chick-rearing Adélie penguins, Pygoscelis adeliae, in fast sea-ice areas were investigated during two consecutive seasons with contrasting sea-ice conditions. During 1995/1996, fast sea ice covered the foraging range of penguins during the whole breeding season. In contrast, during 1996/1997, sea ice covered the area in December 1996, but gradually thinned and finally broke up, so that open sea appeared along the coast during February 1997. Foraging sites were concentrated in a small area in 1995/1996 and spread over a wider area in 1996/1997 as more small open-water areas were available. In both seasons, parents traveled to more distant foraging sites as the season progressed and, consequently, the foraging-trip duration increased. In both years, Euphausia superba and Pagothenia borchgrevinki dominated the diet in the early part of the season, while later in the season penguins fed mainly on E. superba in 1995/1996 and Pagothenia borchgrevinki and E. crystallorophias in 1996/1997. In 1995/1996, penguins tended to dive deeper—albeit for a relatively shorter duration—when feeding mainly on krill compared to when feeding on fish. In 1996/1997, there was no difference in the dive depth and duration between krill- and fish-eating trips. Our results suggest that prey distribution changes annually and seasonally, probably according to sea-ice conditions, and that consequently penguins modify their foraging sites, diving patterns, and diet according to these changes.

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Acknowledgements

We greatly appreciated the logistic support from all the members of JARE 36, 37, and 38, especially Y. Miyamoto and H. Ichikawa, who gave us valuable help in the field. T. Iwami kindly identified fish species and provided unpublished data. We thank Y. Ropert-Coudert for his help in the preparation of figures and for his valuable comments on the manuscript. G. Hosie and three anonymous referees greatly helped us to improve the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Polar Research, Itabashi, 173-8515, Tokyo , Japan

    Akiko Kato & Yasuhiko Naito

  2. Department of Ecology and Systematics, Graduate School of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, 060-8589, Hokkaido, Japan

    Yutaka Watanuki

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  1. Akiko Kato
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  2. Yutaka Watanuki
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  3. Yasuhiko Naito
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Correspondence to Akiko Kato.

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Kato, A., Watanuki, Y. & Naito, Y. Annual and seasonal changes in foraging site and diving behavior in Adélie penguins. Polar Biol 26, 389–395 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-003-0493-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-003-0493-0

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