Population development and historical occurrence of king penguins at the Falkland Islands
Abstract After an extended period of sporadic sightings of small numbers of king penguins at the Falkland Islands, they established themselves on Volunteer Point, situated at the north-east of the islands, by the late 1970s. By 1980, a small breeding population was present which yielded some 40 fled...
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Cambridge University Press (CUP)
2012
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crcambridgeupr:10.1017/s0954102012000302 2024-09-15T17:49:05+00:00 Population development and historical occurrence of king penguins at the Falkland Islands Pistorius, Pierre A. Baylis, Alastair Crofts, Sarah Pütz, Klemens 2012 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0954102012000302 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0954102012000302 en eng Cambridge University Press (CUP) https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms Antarctic Science volume 24, issue 5, page 435-440 ISSN 0954-1020 1365-2079 journal-article 2012 crcambridgeupr https://doi.org/10.1017/s0954102012000302 2024-08-07T04:04:41Z Abstract After an extended period of sporadic sightings of small numbers of king penguins at the Falkland Islands, they established themselves on Volunteer Point, situated at the north-east of the islands, by the late 1970s. By 1980, a small breeding population was present which yielded some 40 fledglings during that same year. Since 1991, the population has been monitored annually and the resulting fledgling counts analysed to assess population trends. The population demonstrated a significant increase over the past three decades, at about 10% per annum, with time explaining 75% of the variation in count data. The current population is estimated to be 720 breeding pairs. Despite several authors having alluded to the existence of a large colony of king penguins at the Falklands prior to human exploitation, we found no evidence in support of this. We furthermore found no evidence in the literature in support of exploitation for king penguin oil during the 19th century. Unlike at other breeding sites, increasing numbers of king penguins at the Falklands is consequently unlikely to be a recovery response following exploitation, but rather an indication of either increased immigration or of improved feeding conditions. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarctic Science King Penguins Cambridge University Press Antarctic Science 24 5 435 440 |
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Open Polar |
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Cambridge University Press |
op_collection_id |
crcambridgeupr |
language |
English |
description |
Abstract After an extended period of sporadic sightings of small numbers of king penguins at the Falkland Islands, they established themselves on Volunteer Point, situated at the north-east of the islands, by the late 1970s. By 1980, a small breeding population was present which yielded some 40 fledglings during that same year. Since 1991, the population has been monitored annually and the resulting fledgling counts analysed to assess population trends. The population demonstrated a significant increase over the past three decades, at about 10% per annum, with time explaining 75% of the variation in count data. The current population is estimated to be 720 breeding pairs. Despite several authors having alluded to the existence of a large colony of king penguins at the Falklands prior to human exploitation, we found no evidence in support of this. We furthermore found no evidence in the literature in support of exploitation for king penguin oil during the 19th century. Unlike at other breeding sites, increasing numbers of king penguins at the Falklands is consequently unlikely to be a recovery response following exploitation, but rather an indication of either increased immigration or of improved feeding conditions. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Pistorius, Pierre A. Baylis, Alastair Crofts, Sarah Pütz, Klemens |
spellingShingle |
Pistorius, Pierre A. Baylis, Alastair Crofts, Sarah Pütz, Klemens Population development and historical occurrence of king penguins at the Falkland Islands |
author_facet |
Pistorius, Pierre A. Baylis, Alastair Crofts, Sarah Pütz, Klemens |
author_sort |
Pistorius, Pierre A. |
title |
Population development and historical occurrence of king penguins at the Falkland Islands |
title_short |
Population development and historical occurrence of king penguins at the Falkland Islands |
title_full |
Population development and historical occurrence of king penguins at the Falkland Islands |
title_fullStr |
Population development and historical occurrence of king penguins at the Falkland Islands |
title_full_unstemmed |
Population development and historical occurrence of king penguins at the Falkland Islands |
title_sort |
population development and historical occurrence of king penguins at the falkland islands |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0954102012000302 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0954102012000302 |
genre |
Antarctic Science King Penguins |
genre_facet |
Antarctic Science King Penguins |
op_source |
Antarctic Science volume 24, issue 5, page 435-440 ISSN 0954-1020 1365-2079 |
op_rights |
https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/s0954102012000302 |
container_title |
Antarctic Science |
container_volume |
24 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
435 |
op_container_end_page |
440 |
_version_ |
1810290787390324736 |