Does corticosterone affect diving behaviour of male Adélie Penguins? A preliminary experimental study

• Main Authors: Cottin, Manuelle, Kato, Akiko, Thierry, Anne-Mathilde, Le Maho, Yvon, Raclot, Thierry, Ropert‐Coudert, Yan
• Other Authors: Département Ecologie, Physiologie et Ethologie (DEPE-IPHC), Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien (IPHC), Université de Strasbourg (UNISTRA)-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Strasbourg (UNISTRA)-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), IPEV (programme 137), TAAF
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2011
• Subjects: Bio-logging; Foraging behaviour; Hormone; Pygoscelis adeliae; Seabirds; [SDE]Environmental Sciences; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00574472

International audience The amount of energy that organisms can allocate to self-maintenance and/or reproduction largely depends on their foraging strategies. Because of corticosterone (CORT) involvement in the control of energy metabolism, food intake and locomotor activity, recent studies have sought to demonstrate the role of this hormone in foraging decisions and performance. Moreover, considerable recent advances in animal-attached loggers now allow the study of behaviour in free-living animals. In order to assess the effects of CORT administration on the foraging behaviour of free-living Adélie Penguins Pygoscelis adeliae, we studied a group with CORT implants and a control group without CORT implants, by attaching time-depth recorders to the two groups and monitoring them throughout up to seven consecutive foraging trips during the guard stage (in Adélie Land, Antarctica). We found that foraging trips duration was similar between both groups. Dive durations, time spent at the bottom phase of dives, and the number of undulations per dive of CORT-implanted birds were all significantly higher than those of controls. However, CORT-implanted birds performed fewer dives overall (ca. 4400) than controls (ca. 6250) and spent many (13 and 6 times for penguins #3 and #4, respectively) long periods (> 3h) without diving. The low foraging effort and long resting periods support the view that CORT-implanted birds probably gained less energy than did the control birds. CORT treatment appears then to result in redirecting bird behaviour from costly activity (i.e. reproduction) to a behaviour promoting the preservation of energy reserves. Future studies are therefore needed to assess body condition and reproductive success of CORT-manipulated birds in parallel with the recording of their diving performances