Accounting for body condition improves allometric estimates of resting metabolic rates in fasting king penguins, Aptenodytes patagonicus

• Published in: Polar Biology
• Main Authors: Falhman, A., Halsey, L.G., Butler, P.J., Jones, D.R., Schmidt, A., Durand, S., Froget, G., Bost, Charles-André, Woakes, A.J., Duchamp, C., Handrich, Y.
• Other Authors: Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia (UBC), Centre for Ornithology, University of Birmingham Birmingham, Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (CEFE), Université Paul-Valéry - Montpellier 3 (UPVM)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Centre international d'études supérieures en sciences agronomiques (Montpellier SupAgro)-École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD France-Sud )-Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier (Montpellier SupAgro), Centre d'Études Biologiques de Chizé (CEBC), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Physiologie intégrative, cellulaire et moléculaire (PICM), Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL), Université de Lyon-Université de Lyon-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2006
• Subjects: [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology; [SDE.ES]Environmental Sciences/Environment and Society; King Penguins; Polar Biology
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-00184867; https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-005-0096-z

6 PAGES International audience We describe a method that allows prediction of resting metabolic rate (RMR, ml O2 Æ min1) in adult male and female king penguins on shore by measuring body mass (Mb) and the length of the foot, flipper and beak. This method is accurate, underestimating measured RMR (n=114) by 4% in a data set consisting of 44 birds (33 males and 11 females). Measurement error was unbiased with respect to fasting duration and can therefore estimate RMR during any stage of fasting. This new method provides significant cost and logistical savings when estimating RMR during fieldwork, allowing RMR of a large number of birds to be measured quickly. These findings suggest the possibility that the use of Mb and morphometrics will allow development of general and specific equations to estimate RMR in other species.