A possible Adélie penguin sub-colony on fast ice by Cape Crozier, Antarctica
Abstract Adélie penguins are renowned for their natal philopatry on land-based colonies, requiring small pebbles to be used for nests. We report on an opportunistic observation via aerial survey, where hundreds of Adélie penguins were documented displaying nesting behaviours on fast ice ~3 km off th...
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crcambridgeupr:10.1017/s095410201900018x 2024-09-15T17:43:15+00:00 A possible Adélie penguin sub-colony on fast ice by Cape Crozier, Antarctica Larue, Michelle Iles, David Labrousse, Sara Salas, Leo Ballard, Grant Ainley, David Saenz, Benjamin 2019 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s095410201900018x https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S095410201900018X en eng Cambridge University Press (CUP) https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms Antarctic Science volume 31, issue 4, page 189-194 ISSN 0954-1020 1365-2079 journal-article 2019 crcambridgeupr https://doi.org/10.1017/s095410201900018x 2024-07-31T04:04:45Z Abstract Adélie penguins are renowned for their natal philopatry on land-based colonies, requiring small pebbles to be used for nests. We report on an opportunistic observation via aerial survey, where hundreds of Adélie penguins were documented displaying nesting behaviours on fast ice ~3 km off the coast of Cape Crozier, which is one of the largest colonies in the world. We counted 426 Adélie penguins engaging in behaviours of pair formation, spacing similarly to normal nest distributions and lying in divots in the ice that looked like nests. On our first visit, it was noticed that the guano stain was bright pink, consistent with krill consumption, but had shifted to green over the course of ~2 weeks, indicating that the birds were fasting (a behaviour consistent with egg incubation). However, eggs were not observed. We posit four hypotheses that may explain the proximate causes of this behaviour and caution against future high-resolution satellite imagery interpretation due to the potential for confusing ice-nesting Adélie penguins with the presence of emperor penguin colonies. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Science Antarctica Cambridge University Press Antarctic Science 31 4 189 194 |
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Open Polar |
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Cambridge University Press |
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crcambridgeupr |
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English |
description |
Abstract Adélie penguins are renowned for their natal philopatry on land-based colonies, requiring small pebbles to be used for nests. We report on an opportunistic observation via aerial survey, where hundreds of Adélie penguins were documented displaying nesting behaviours on fast ice ~3 km off the coast of Cape Crozier, which is one of the largest colonies in the world. We counted 426 Adélie penguins engaging in behaviours of pair formation, spacing similarly to normal nest distributions and lying in divots in the ice that looked like nests. On our first visit, it was noticed that the guano stain was bright pink, consistent with krill consumption, but had shifted to green over the course of ~2 weeks, indicating that the birds were fasting (a behaviour consistent with egg incubation). However, eggs were not observed. We posit four hypotheses that may explain the proximate causes of this behaviour and caution against future high-resolution satellite imagery interpretation due to the potential for confusing ice-nesting Adélie penguins with the presence of emperor penguin colonies. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Larue, Michelle Iles, David Labrousse, Sara Salas, Leo Ballard, Grant Ainley, David Saenz, Benjamin |
spellingShingle |
Larue, Michelle Iles, David Labrousse, Sara Salas, Leo Ballard, Grant Ainley, David Saenz, Benjamin A possible Adélie penguin sub-colony on fast ice by Cape Crozier, Antarctica |
author_facet |
Larue, Michelle Iles, David Labrousse, Sara Salas, Leo Ballard, Grant Ainley, David Saenz, Benjamin |
author_sort |
Larue, Michelle |
title |
A possible Adélie penguin sub-colony on fast ice by Cape Crozier, Antarctica |
title_short |
A possible Adélie penguin sub-colony on fast ice by Cape Crozier, Antarctica |
title_full |
A possible Adélie penguin sub-colony on fast ice by Cape Crozier, Antarctica |
title_fullStr |
A possible Adélie penguin sub-colony on fast ice by Cape Crozier, Antarctica |
title_full_unstemmed |
A possible Adélie penguin sub-colony on fast ice by Cape Crozier, Antarctica |
title_sort |
possible adélie penguin sub-colony on fast ice by cape crozier, antarctica |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s095410201900018x https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S095410201900018X |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Science Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Science Antarctica |
op_source |
Antarctic Science volume 31, issue 4, page 189-194 ISSN 0954-1020 1365-2079 |
op_rights |
https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/s095410201900018x |
container_title |
Antarctic Science |
container_volume |
31 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
189 |
op_container_end_page |
194 |
_version_ |
1810490126130741248 |