Tracking of Short-tailed shearwaters

• Other Authors: Hindell, Mark, Prof. (owner), McMahon, Clive (pointOfContact), Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), University of Tasmania (UTAS) (hasAssociationWith)
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: University of Tasmania, Australia
• Subjects: oceans; MIGRATORY RATES/ROUTES; EARTH SCIENCE; BIOSPHERE; ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS; SPECIES/POPULATION INTERACTIONS; Tags and Tracking Devices; Marine Seabirds; Wildlife and Habitat Management; Marine and Estuarine Ecology (incl. Marine Ichthyology); Global / Oceans | Indian Ocean; Global / Oceans | Southern Ocean; Global / Oceans | Pacific Ocean; Marine Features (Australia) | Great Australian Bight; SA/WA; Marine Features (Australia) | Bass Strait; TAS/VIC; Regional Seas | Tasman Sea; Countries | Australia; States; Territories (Australia) | Western Australia; Territories (Australia) | Victoria; Territories (Australia) | Tasmania; Territories (Australia) | New South Wales; Offshore Islands (Australia) | Macquarie Island; Continents | Antarctica; Indian; Pacific; Southern Ocean; Antarc*; Antarctica; Macquarie Island; Puffinus tenuirostris
• Online Access: https://researchdata.edu.au/tracking-short-tailed-shearwaters/619201; https://metadata.imas.utas.edu.au:443/geonetwork/srv/en/metadata.show?uuid=8cea53a2-68d6-4d94-a3bf-29d76f14d092; http://geoserver-123.aodn.org.au/geoserver/wfs; http://geoserver-123.aodn.org.au/geoserver/wms; https://data.imas.utas.edu.au/portal/home

This record presents data collected from tagged and recaptured Short-tailed shearwaters (Puffinus tenuirostris), with data presented throughout the Southern Ocean. The study was initially conducted on Wedge Island (43 km2), southern Tasmania (43o 07' S, 147o 40' E). Fifty geolocation archival (GLS) tag deployments were made on 34 adult birds in the pre-laying exodus (n = 18), incubation (n = 12) and early chick-rearing (ECR) phases (n = 20). In 2012, 12 birds were tracked during the pre-laying exodus. GLS tags were deployed between the 10th and the 18th of October. Ten birds were tracked from Wedge Island (as in 2010) and 2 were tracked from Whalebone Point, Bruny Island (43.44 South, 147.23 East; birds 22 and 80). MK-19 GLS tags (Biotrack Ltd., Wareham, UK) are well suited for tracking small Procellariiform seabirds due to their miniature size (16×14×6mm, 2.5g) and inexpensive cost. Prior to the pre-laying exodus a threshold weight of 540gwas used when choosing individuals for tag deployment, to ensure that no birds in poor condition were included in the sample. Due to an improvement in post-migration body condition following the pre-laying exodus the minimum weight for tag deployment was increased to greater than 580 g. Biotrack MK-19 GLS tags sample light level every minute and record the maximum light measurement in every five minute period, which is the primary data for estimating initial location. They also sample the time when an activity (wet or dry) state change occurs, with water temperature recorded after twenty minutes in the wet phase, which acted as auxiliary environmental data for estimating initial location. Prior to deployment, GLS temperature sensors were calibrated, in a water bath at 2 °C increments between 0 °C to 24 °C and then at 28 °C, to cover the SST range of the expected foraging area. Individual tags were placed in an open space for three days at the deployment location to produce a sequence of light recordings at a known location from which solar elevation estimates could be calculated. After retrieval, the raw archived tag data was downloaded, and adjustments for internal clock drift were made. The 2010 tracking work is part of a multi-species study funded by the Australian Animal Tracking And Monitoring System (AATAMS) Facility of the Integrated Marine Observation System (IMOS). In 2012, slightly different GLS tags (MK3005 V608, Biotrack), was deployed. These are recognised by the company manufacturing as comparable to the MK-19 tags. Track estimation was performed in R with the package SGAT (which is freely available on GitHub). The locations for each bird represent the mean locations of each twilight from the 12,000 possible fitted tracks from the final fitted model.