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Parasites of chinstrap penguins (Pygoscelis antarctica) from three localities in the Antarctic Peninsula and a review of their parasitic fauna

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Abstract

Studies of parasitism in chinstrap penguins (Pygoscelis antarctica) are infrequent and mainly refer to the identification and description of its parasites, with little ecological data. In an attempt to address that lack of knowledge, we collected endo- and ecto-parasites from 326 live and four dead of chinstrap penguins, in three different localities of Antarctica not studied before. Three species of endoparasites and two of ectoparasites were found parasitizing birds: two tapeworms, Tetrabothrius pauliani (Cestoda: Tetrabothriidae) and Parorchites zederi (Cestoda: Dilepididae); one roundworm, Stegophorus macronectes (Nematoda: Acuariidae), and one feather louse: Austrogoniodes gressitti (Insecta: Phthiraptera: Philopteridae). Ticks (Ixodes uriae—Acari: Ixodidae) were collected from the ground near the penguin nesting colonies at two localities, Shirreff Cape and Narebsky Point. New ecological data are given for the two species of ectoparasites. No parasites were found in the blood collected from 300 live penguins.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Instituto Antártico Chileno for financing the research project INACH T-27-10, T-12-13 and T-23-19. Special thanks are due to the staff of the following Chilean Antarctic Bases, Bernardo O’Higgins, Arctowski, Mann, Escudero and Gabriel González Videla, for their assistance to facilitate our field work. Also, we appreciate many helpful comments made by three reviewers, which greatly improved the quality of this paper. With great sadness, we acknowledge the untimely death of our friend and colleague Daniel González-Acuña in December 2020, while this paper was being revised. Daniel was the driving force behind this research; hence, he remains as first author of this paper.

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Author notes

  1. Michelle Wille

    Present address: Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity, School of Life and Environmental Sciences and School of Medical Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia

  2. Daniel A. González-Acuña—Deceased, 28 December 2020.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias, Universidad de Concepción, Casilla 537, Chillán, Chile

    Daniel A. González-Acuña

  2. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Oceanográficas, Universidad de Concepción, Concepción, Chile

    Lucila Moreno

  3. Center for Ecology and Evolution in Microbial Model Systems (EEMiS), Linnaeus University, Kalmar, Sweden

    Michelle Wille

  4. Department of Clinical Microbiology, Uppsala University Hospital, SE-751 85, Uppsala, Sweden

    Bjorn Herrmann

  5. Helm West Laboratory, 2108 Hilda Avenue, Missoula, MT, 59801, USA

    Mike J. Kinsella

  6. Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, P.O. Box 467, Wellington, New Zealand

    Ricardo L. Palma

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  1. Daniel A. González-Acuña
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Contributions

DAGA conceived and designed the project and collected specimens in Antarctica. LM conducted laboratory analysis. MW and BH conducted field work. MJK identified the three species of endoparasites. RLP identified the lice and took over as corresponding author after the death of DAGA, while this paper was in the process of publication. All authors contributed to writing and reviewing the paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ricardo L. Palma.

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The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest or personal relationships that could have influenced this paper.

Ethical approval

Approval to conduct sampling from penguins in Antarctica was provided by the Universidad de Concepción, Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias, Chillán, Chile (application number CE-3-2010).

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González-Acuña, D.A., Moreno, L., Wille, M. et al. Parasites of chinstrap penguins (Pygoscelis antarctica) from three localities in the Antarctic Peninsula and a review of their parasitic fauna. Polar Biol 44, 2099–2105 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-021-02945-x

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