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Conventional and molecular analysis of the diet of gentoo penguins: contributions to assess scats for non-invasive penguin diet monitoring

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Abstract

There is a growing search for less invasive methods while studying the diet of Antarctic animals in the wild. Therefore, we compared the diet of gentoo penguins from stomach contents (i.e. through visual identification of prey remains) and scats (i.e. faeces), and further compared prey DNA assay in fresh and old scats. Prey remains identified visually in stomach contents and scats were broadly comparable: the crustaceans and fish were the most important components, with Themisto gaudichaudii clearly being the most frequent and numerous prey species in both sampling methods. By mass, differences in species frequency were observed in stomach contents (Parachaenichthys georgianus) and scats (Champsocephalus gunnari), with the former fish species absent in scats. Differences were detected in the most frequent prey (T. gaudichaudii and Euphausia superba) and in various fish species, most with bigger sizes in scats. Allometric equations to estimate most crustacean’s sizes (i.e. relationships between carapace and mass/total length) are needed. For DNA studies, when comparing DNA from fresh and old scats, both provided similar results that, in general, were also similar to the visual analysis. In order to use penguin scats (along with the use of DNA analyses) for monitoring purposes, allometric equations to estimate mass and size of prey (most crustaceans) and better designed species-specific primers are needed for targeting key prey species (e.g. Euphausia superba, T. gaudichaudii). These DNA methodologies can complement other methods (i.e. visual analyses and stomach contents analyses) in monitoring programs of penguins.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Antarctic science Bursary for the Antarctic Science scholarship awarded to this project and the editor Dieter Piepenburg, Tom Hart and two other referees for their comments. JX is supported by the Investigator FCT program (IF/00616/2013) and is part of the SCAR Ant-ERA, SCAR EGBAMM, PROPOLAR and ICED programs. This study benefited from the strategic program of MARE, financed by FCT (MARE- UID/MAR/04292/2013). We thank Naomi Treble and Alexandra McCubbin for their support in the lab.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Life Sciences, Institute of Marine Research, University of Coimbra, 3001-401, Coimbra, Portugal

    José C. Xavier, Nadja Velez & Ana R. Carreiro

  2. British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0ET, UK

    José C. Xavier, Norman Ratcliffe & Phil N. Trathan

  3. Centre d´Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, UMR 7372 du CNRS-Université de La Rochelle, 79360, Villiers-En-Bois, France

    Yves Cherel

  4. Cardiff School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, The Sir Martin Evans Building, Museum Av, Cardiff, CF10 3AX, UK

    Renata Medeiros

  5. School of Applied and Biomedical Sciences, Federation University Australia, Berwick, Australia

    Meagan Dewar

  6. School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Burwood, Australia

    Meagan Dewar

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  1. José C. Xavier
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Xavier, J.C., Cherel, Y., Medeiros, R. et al. Conventional and molecular analysis of the diet of gentoo penguins: contributions to assess scats for non-invasive penguin diet monitoring. Polar Biol 41, 2275–2287 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-018-2364-8

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