Adelie penguin occupancy survey of the Windmill Island group, 2012 - 2013

• Other Authors: SOUTHWELL, COLIN (hasPrincipalInvestigator), SOUTHWELL, COLIN (processor), EMMERSON, LOUISE (hasPrincipalInvestigator), EMMERSON, LOUISE (processor), Australian Antarctic Data Centre (publisher)
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: Australian Antarctic Data Centre
• Subjects: biota; oceans; PENGUINS; EARTH SCIENCE; BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION; ANIMALS/VERTEBRATES; BIRDS; BREEDING PRODUCTIVITY; CLIMATE INDICATORS; BIOSPHERIC INDICATORS; COLONIES; GPS RECEIVERS; FIELD SURVEYS; FIELD INVESTIGATION; GEOGRAPHIC REGION > POLAR; CONTINENT > ANTARCTICA; OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN; Berkley Island; Blakeney Point; Cameron Island; O'Connor; O'Connor Island; Odbert Island; Shirley Island; Southern Ocean; Whitney Point; Adelie penguin; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://researchdata.ands.org.au/adelie-penguin-occupancy-2012-2013/945694; https://doi.org/10.4225/15/58f6edaedaa3e; https://data.aad.gov.au/metadata/records/AAS_4088_Adelie_occupancy_Windmill_2012-2013; http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-617536

An occupancy survey in January 2011 found a total of 14 islands/sites in Windmill group had populations of breeding Adelie penguins. The boundaries of breeding colonies at 11 of the 14 islands were subsequently mapped for abundance surveys. Seven islands were mapped on the ground with GPS: Whitney Point, Blakeney Point, Shirley Island, Odbert Island, Berkley Island, Cameron Island and O'Connor Island between 10 December 2012 to 9 January 2013 ). The buffer distance was reduced to 1-2 m in the shapefiles created from the ground maps. Ground mapping involved circumnavigating the perimeter of sub-colonies on foot while carrying a Garmin GPS (Legend Cx or Vista C) to log the track taken. The person walking around the sub-colonies maintained a buffer distance of 2-3 m between themselves and the penguins at the sub-colony boundary to minimise disturbance.