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Predation by New Zealand sea lions and Brown Skuas is causing the continued decline of an Eastern Rockhopper Penguin colony on Campbell Island

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Abstract

Identification of factors causing population declines is a critical prerequisite for conserving threatened species. The most likely cause of dramatic decreases in numbers of the ‘Vulnerable’ Southern Rockhopper Penguin (Eudyptes chrysocome) in the twentieth century is oceanographic change reducing food availability. For example, the massive decline of the Eastern sub-species (E. c. filholi) on Campbell Island, New Zealand (94.6 %, 1942–2012), has been attributed to climate change. This decline reversed in the mid-1990s after a shift to favourable conditions, but a localized decline continued at a small, fragmented population in Penguin Bay, where one of five sub-colonies went extinct in 2010, and the number of breeding pairs fell from 7360 in 1984 to 3012 in 2012. Emerging concerns for Eudyptes penguins are the effects of increased predation from native predators. At Campbell Island, monitoring demonstrated that penguin eggs and chicks in smaller sub-colonies were most vulnerable to predation by Brown Skuas (Catharacta antarctica lonnbergi), so that average reproductive success was 25 % lower at the smallest sub-colony than at the largest. ‘Endangered’ New Zealand sea lions (Phocarctos hookeri) were estimated to depredate 6 % of the adult penguin population each year, which modelling identified as the most important driver of the population’s negative exponential growth rate (λ = 0.905, −9.5 % per year). Although occasional years of very poor food availability may exert a larger ‘bottom–up’ effect on penguin demographic rates, the ‘top–down’ effects of high avian and pinniped predation rates can be sufficient to drive the decline of small penguin populations.

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Acknowledgments

Our methods were approved by the Massey University Animal Ethics Committee, protocol no. 10/90. K.W.M. is grateful to Massey University, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and Education New Zealand for financial support. This work was supported by the New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment (contract C01X0905 to the National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research). Additional research funding was generously provided by the Hutton Fund of The Royal Society of New Zealand, and the Penguin Fund of Japan. We are grateful to S. Cockburn at the New Zealand Department of Conservation, National Office for providing RFID data loggers. Thanks are due to the Department of Conservation, Southland Conservancy for supporting our research on Campbell Island, and to H. Haazen and the crew of RV ‘Tiama’ for safe transport. This study was made possible by the many hours Neil Morrison, Rob Dunn, and Ray Buchheit spent braving the elements to document predation events in Penguin Bay.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ecology Group, Institute of Natural Resources, Massey University, Palmerston North, 4442, New Zealand

    Kyle W. Morrison, Doug P. Armstrong & Phil F. Battley

  2. National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, Hataitai, Wellington, 6021, New Zealand

    Kyle W. Morrison & David R. Thompson

  3. Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, c/o Trent University, DNA Building, 2140 East Bank Drive, Peterborough, ON, K9L 0G2, Canada

    Kyle W. Morrison & Sarah E. Jamieson

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Morrison, K.W., Armstrong, D.P., Battley, P.F. et al. Predation by New Zealand sea lions and Brown Skuas is causing the continued decline of an Eastern Rockhopper Penguin colony on Campbell Island. Polar Biol 40, 735–751 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-016-1996-9

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