Diel diving behavior of breeding gentoo penguins on King George Island in Antarctica

• Main Authors: Lee, Won Young, Jung, Jin-Woo, Jeong-Hoon Kim, Kokubun, Nobuo, Hosung Chung
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: Taylor & Francis 2015
• Subjects: Science Policy; Inorganic Chemistry; FOS Chemical sciences; Biological Sciences; Ecology; FOS Biological sciences; Chemistry; Earth and Environmental Sciences; Cell Biology; Antarctic; King George Island; South Shetland Islands; Antarc*; Antarctica; Gentoo penguin; Pygoscelis papua
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1568073; https://tandf.figshare.com/articles/dataset/Diel_diving_behavior_of_breeding_gentoo_penguins_on_King_George_Island_in_Antarctica/1568073

Many marine birds dive to catch prey in water. The gentoo penguin ( Pygoscelis papua ), a specialized diving seabird that preys on krill and fish, is distributed from the sub-Antarctic islands to Antarctic regions. Here, we observed the diving behavior of breeding gentoo penguins on King George Island, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. Using a time–depth recorder, we collected diving depths every second from seven gentoo breeders for 5–21 days during the chick-rearing period and analyzed their diving characteristics. Most dives occurred in shallow water, although the dive efficiency (=bottom duration time/[dive duration + post-dive surface time]) was highest at depths of 30–35 m and decreased as the penguins dove deeper. Gentoo penguins did not dive more frequently during the day than at night, but during nighttime, most dives occurred in shallow water (<20 m) and the dive efficiency was also higher at this time. As penguins repeated their foraging trips, the number of dives, depth of dives, and trip duration did not change significantly. Our results suggest that the diel dive patterns of gentoo penguins might be related to the vertical migration of krill (upward to the surface at night). In addition, we observed that gentoo penguins could perform active diving behavior even at night, possibly aided by civil twilight during the chick-rearing period in Antarctic regions.