Abstract
The population of Gentoo Penguins (Pygoscelis papua) in the maritime Antarctic is rapidly increasing. Due to regional climate changes, they colonise previously inaccessible territories southwards. For more than a century, the southernmost colony of Gentoo Penguins was located on Petermann Island (Wilhelm Archipelago). Since 2002, several colonies were established nearby, including on Cape Tuxen (Graham Land), which is currently the southernmost breeding colony documented for this species on the Antarctic Peninsula. It increased from 100 nests in 2007 to 592 nests in 2020. Since a colony is located on the cliffs and there is a lack of pebbles, some breeding pairs started building their nests predominantly out of the nearby living mosses or moss banks. P. papua are known for using mosses as nesting material in the sub-Antarctic, but such nesting behaviour is new for southernmost colonies in the Antarctic. In this short note, we report such nests on the Cape Tuxen, provide photographs and discuss the possible impact on the terrestrial ecosystems.
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Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank Prof. David William Hedding for valuable comments on the initial version of this short note. We also are grateful to two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and recommendations.
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This study was supported by the State Institution “National Antarctic Scientific Center” of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.
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ID conceived the research, conducted fieldwork, and contributed to the writing of the manuscript. TB wrote the first draft of the manuscript and designed the map. Both authors read, reviewed, and approved the manuscript.
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The penguins’ nests were examined during the fieldwork for the CCAMLR project “Establishing a CEMP Camera Network in Subarea 48.1”, authorised by the State Institution “National Antarctic Scientific Center” of Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. The photographs were taken from a distance to minimise the disturbance.
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Dykyy, I., Bedernichek, T. Gentoo Penguins (Pygoscelis papua) started using mosses as nesting material in the southernmost colony on the Antarctic Peninsula (Cape Tuxen, Graham Land). Polar Biol 45, 149–152 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-021-02968-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-021-02968-4