Abstract
Leg-mounted loggers are increasingly used in seabird activity studies, but few studies have validated the information obtained about bird behaviour with independent data. Using Brünnich’s Guillemot Uria lomvia as a study species, we show by comparing interpretations of time–depth recorder (TDR) data with visual observations that activity budgets inferred from leg-mounted TDRs provide reliable information on colony attendance, and validate information on flight time by comparing periods interpreted as flight based on TDR data with periods interpreted as flight based on GPS speed information. Yet, special attention is needed because auks resting at sea occasionally withdraw one leg and/or foot into the plumage (leg-in-plumage). During this behaviour, the TDR may be warm and dry, potentially leading to spurious identification of colony visits. In our case study, spurious identification of colony visits would have resulted in mean trip duration being underestimated by a factor of 4, and number of trips being correspondingly overestimated. We therefore urge great care when deriving activity budgets from leg-mounted TDRs, but nonetheless recommend using leg-mounted TDRs to infer activity budgets from diving seabirds, particularly for longer deployments.
Zusammenfassung
Aktivitätsbudgets von Seevögeln anhand von am Bein befestigten Tiefenmessern
Bei Aktivitätsstudien an Seevögeln werden vermehrt am Bein befestigte Datenlogger eingesetzt, allerdings haben bislang nur wenige Studien die dadurch gewonnenen Informationen über das Verhalten der Vögel anhand von unabhängigen Daten bestätigt. Wir wählten Dickschnabellummen Uria lomvia als Untersuchungsart, um durch den Vergleich der Auswertungen von Tiefenmessern (time–depth recorder, TDR) mit Sichtbeobachtungen zu zeigen, dass Aktivitätsbudgets auf der Grundlage von an den Beinen der Vögel befestigten TDRs verlässliche Informationen über deren Anwesenheit in der Kolonie liefern und um Flugzeitangaben durch den Vergleich von an TDR-Daten ermittelten Flugphasen mit solchen, die auf der Basis von GPS-Geschwindigkeitsdaten bestimmt wurden, zu bestätigen. Trotzdem ist besondere Vorsicht angebracht, da auf See ruhende Lummen gelegentlich ein Bein beziehungsweise einen Fuß ins Gefieder ziehen. Während dieser Verhaltensweise ist der TDR unter Umständen warm und trocken und kann so zur fälschlichen Diagnose von Kolonieaufenthalten führen. In unserer Fallstudie hätte eine solche falsche Erkennung von Koloniebesuchen dazu geführt, dass die mittlere Dauer von Nahrungsflügen um den Faktor 4 zu niedrig angesetzt beziehungsweise dass umgekehrt die Anzahl der Flüge entsprechend überschätzt worden wäre. Daher möchten wir dringend zur Vorsicht raten, wenn Aktivitätsbudgets anhand von am Bein angebrachten TDRs ermittelt werden; trotzdem können wir diese zur Erstellung von Aktivitätsbudgets tauchender Seevögel, besonders über einen längeren Einsatzzeitraum, empfehlen.
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Acknowledgments
We wish to express our gratitude to Jérôme Fort and Kelly Edmunds for useful discussions and proofreading, and Tim Guilford for providing us with GPS loggers in 2009. We also thank David Grémillet, Steve Votier and anonymous reviewers for comments on earlier drafts.
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Communicated by C. Barbraud.
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Linnebjerg, J.F., Huffeldt, N.P., Falk, K. et al. Inferring seabird activity budgets from leg-mounted time–depth recorders. J Ornithol 155, 301–306 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-013-1015-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-013-1015-7