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Where Breeding Magellanic Penguins Spheniscus Magellanicus Forage: Satellite Telemetry Results and Their Implications for Penguin Conservation

1999; Volume: 27; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.5038/2074-1235.27.1.424

2074-1235

David L. Stokes, P. Dee Boersma,

Genetic diversity and population structure

SUMMARY We used satellite telemetry to determine foraging locations and behaviours of two male Magellanic Penguins Spheniscus magellanicus breeding at Punta Tombo, Argentina during the incubation and early chick-rearing periods of the 1995/96 breeding season. Both birds travelled far from the colony and far from shore, even on foraging trips of short duration. During their longest trips, Males One and Two travelled at least 521 km and 236 km from Punta Tombo and at least 152 km and 139 km from shore, respectively. The farthest points of all but two of the birds' 10 trips were more than 60 km from Punta Tombo. The two birds travelled in significantly different directions to forage and foraged in different locations. Temporal pattern of foraging trips and dive pattern also differed between birds. Male Two took more trips and made proportionally fewer dives of intermediate depth (10-40 m) than did Male One. These results raise the possibility that foraging behaviour may differ among individuals of the same class (e.g. experienced breeding males). Although more study is needed, these results demonstrate that the foraging range of a temperate penguin can be large. This and other recent satellite results for Antarctic and sub-Antarctic species, as well as geolocation results for Magellanic Penguins, indicate that extensive foraging ranges during the breeding season may be more common among penguins than previously recognized. This suggests that coastal marine reserves alone are unlikely to protect Magellanic Penguins and several other penguin species, and that conservation measures that regulate human uses over large areas of the marine environment should also be pursued.