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New Magellanic penguin Spheniscus magellanicus colony in a subantarctic island

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Abstract

This paper provides data on a newly discovered colony of Magellanic penguins Spheniscus magellanicus in the southwest Atlantic Ocean. A new settlement was found while conducting southern rockhopper penguin Eudyptes chrysocome studies in the San Juan de Salvamento colony in Staten Island, Argentina. The colony holds 88 breeding pairs. While the origin of the founders was unknown, it is possible that they came from the nearby Observatorio Island colony located ~ 20 km away. New colonies allow populations to expand and establish in new areas, which could allow a species to respond to changes in climate. Nonetheless, this expansion might be a detriment to other penguin species that already occupied the area.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Henk Boersma for our safe trips to the island onboard the Sarah Vorwerk. We also acknowledge María Eugenia Lopez who provided the digital elevation model used to depict the colony area in Fig. 2, and Fernando Encinas and Juan Manuel Raya Rey for helping with the survey during the second expedition. Sabrina Harris helped with language edits. The seabird conservation program and associated expeditions have been supported by the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Antarctic Research Trust over the last decade.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratorio de Ecología y Conservación la Vida Silvestre, Centro Austral de Investigaciones Científicas (CADIC-CONICET), Bernardo Houssay 200, Ushuaia, Argentina

    Andrea Raya Rey & Ulises Balza

  2. Instituto de Ciencias Polares, Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (ICPA), Universidad Nacional de Tierra del Fuego (UNTdF), Leandro N. Alem 1036, Ushuaia, Argentina

    Andrea Raya Rey

  3. Wildlife Conservation Society, Amenábar 1595, Office 19, C1426AKC, CABA, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Andrea Raya Rey

  4. Logistic Expedition, Marcos Zar 148, Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina

    Ignacio Domato & Francisco Zunino

  5. Dirección Regional Patagonia Austral, Administración de Parques Nacionales, San Martín 1395, Ushuaia, Argentina

    Francisco Zunino

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  1. Andrea Raya Rey
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  2. Ulises Balza
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  3. Ignacio Domato
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  4. Francisco Zunino
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All author conducted field work. ARR and UB analyzed data. ARR wrote the manuscript. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Andrea Raya Rey.

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Raya Rey, A., Balza, U., Domato, I. et al. New Magellanic penguin Spheniscus magellanicus colony in a subantarctic island. Polar Biol 45, 1553–1558 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-022-03093-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-022-03093-6

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