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Practical method of estimating fresh mass of Adélie penguin eggs

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Abstract

Fresh egg mass (FEM) is an important measure as it relates to many allometric relationships. Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) eggs, as other bird eggs, begin to lose weight as soon as they are laid but their linear dimensions remain constant. The FEM of an Adélie penguin’s egg can be estimated within 1% from the relationship FEM = 0.564 × LW 2, where L is the length and W is the width. The constant 0.564 was calculated by weighing the eggs after replacing the air cell with water. The calculated mean egg mass agrees well with that obtained by weighing eggs after replacement of the air cell with water (r 2 = 0.996). This method of estimating FEM based on linear measurements is easily applicable in the field.

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Acknowledgments

Field work was financially and logistically supported by the Institut polaire français Paul-Emile Victor (IPEV). We thank A.-M. Thierry and T. Raclot for assistance with the egg collection and the three reviewers for their comments that improved the manuscript.

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  1. Département Ecologie, Physiologie et Ethologie (DEPE), Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien (IPHC), UMR 7178 CNRS/UDS, 23 rue Becquerel, 67087, Strasbourg, France

    André Ancel & Michaël Beaulieu

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  1. André Ancel
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  2. Michaël Beaulieu
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Correspondence to André Ancel.

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Ancel, A., Beaulieu, M. Practical method of estimating fresh mass of Adélie penguin eggs. Polar Biol 32, 1091–1093 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-009-0644-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-009-0644-z

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