Biologging of emperor penguins – attachment techniques and associated deployment performance

• Main Authors: Houstin, Aymeric, Zitterbart, Daniel, Winterl, Alexander, Richter, Sebastian, Planas-Bielsa, Víctor, Chevallier, Damien, Ancel, André, Fournier, Jérôme, Fabry, Ben, Le Bohec, Céline
• Other Authors: Centre Scientifique de Monaco (CSM), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Département Ecologie, Physiologie et Ethologie (DEPE-IPHC), Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien (IPHC), Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Université de Strasbourg (UNISTRA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Université de Strasbourg (UNISTRA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2021
• Subjects: [SDV]Life Sciences [q-bio]; Weddell; Weddell Sea; Aptenodytes forsteri; Emperor penguins
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03409952; https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.08.446548

Abstract An increasing number of marine animals are equipped with biologgers, to study their physiology, behaviour and ecology, often for conservation purposes. To minimise the impacts of biologgers on the animals’ welfare, the Refinement principle from the Three Rs framework ( Replacement, Reduction, Refinement ) urges to continuously test and evaluate new and updated biologging protocols. Here, we propose alternative and promising techniques for emperor penguin ( Aptenodytes forsteri ) capture and on-site logger deployment that aim to mitigate the potential negative impacts of logger deployment on these birds. We equipped adult emperor penguins for short-term (GPS, Time-Depth Recorder (TDR)) and long-term ( i . e . planned for one year) deployments (ARGOS platforms, TDR), as well as juvenile emperor penguins for long-term deployments (ARGOS platforms) in the Weddell Sea area where they had not yet been studied. We describe and qualitatively evaluate our protocols for the attachment of biologgers on-site at the colony, the capture of the animals and the recovery of the devices after deployment. We report unprecedented recaptures of long-term equipped adult emperor penguins (50% of equipped individuals recaptured after 290 days). Our data demonstrate that the traditional technique of long-term attachment by gluing the biologgers directly to the back feathers is detrimental to the birds. It causes excessive feather breakage and the loss of the devices at an early stage. We therefore propose an alternative method of attachment for back-mounted devices. This technique led to successful year-round deployments on 37.5% of the equipped juveniles. Finally, we also disclose the first deployments of leg-bracelet mounted TDRs on emperor penguins. Our findings highlight the importance of monitoring potential impacts of biologger deployments on the animals and the need to remain critical towards established and new protocols.