Abstract
The tick Ixodes uriae is widespread in subantarctic areas. This tick species parasitises a large number of seabird species and may affect their population dynamics. Adult king penguins are significant hosts for I. uriae in Crozet Archipelago. We compared the body mass, haematocrit level and behaviour during incubation according to tick infestation. Tick infestation had no effect on the body mass, haematocrit or behaviour of incubating penguins. Contrary to what might have been expected, birds breeding in the infested area did not show a lower fidelity to that area the next breeding season in comparison to birds breeding in the non-infested area. Survival was not different between the two groups over the following 32 months.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the Institut Polaire Français-Paul-Emile Victor for financial and logistical support (Programme 137). This work was partly supported by the project Zones Ateliers of the Programme Environnement Vie et Société of the CNRS. We are grateful to Sébastien Descamps, Nicolas Lecomte and Vincent Motsch for help in the field, and to three anonymous referees for improving our manuscript. This study was approved by the Ethical Committee of the Institut Français pour la Recherche et la Technologie Polaires.
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Gauthier-Clerc, M., Mangin, S., Le Bohec, C. et al. Comparison of behaviour, body mass, haematocrit level, site fidelity and survival between infested and non-infested king penguin Aptenodytes patagonicus by ticks Ixodes uriae . Polar Biol 26, 379–382 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-003-0495-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-003-0495-y