Diet composition of Emperor Penguin chicks Aptenodytes forsten‘ at two Mawson Coast colonies, Antarctica

The diet composition of Emperor Penguin Aptenodytes forsteri chicks was examined at Auster and Taylor Glacier colonies, near Australia's Mawson station, Antarctica, between hatching in mid-winter and fledging in mid-summer by “water-offloading” adults. Chicks at both colonies were fed a similar...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ibis
Main Authors: ROBERTSON, GRAHAM, WILLIAMS, R., GREEN, KEN, ROBERTSON, LYNNE
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2008
Subjects:
Taylor Glacier
Mawson Station
Auster
Mawson Coast
Antarc*
Antarctica
antarcticus
Aptenodytes forsteri
Online Access:https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/37717/
https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/37717/1/2573.pdf
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1474-919X.1994.tb08127.x
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Summary:The diet composition of Emperor Penguin Aptenodytes forsteri chicks was examined at Auster and Taylor Glacier colonies, near Australia's Mawson station, Antarctica, between hatching in mid-winter and fledging in mid-summer by “water-offloading” adults. Chicks at both colonies were fed a similar suite of prey species. Crustaceans occurred in 82% of stomach samples at Auster and 87% of stomachs at Taylor Glacier and were heavily digested: their contribution to food mass could not be quantified. Fish, primarily bentho-pelagic species, accounted for 52% by number and 55% by mass of chick diet at Auster, and squid formed the remainder. At Taylor Glacier the corresponding values were 27% by number and 31% by mass of fish and 73% by number and 69% by mass of squid. Of the 33 species or taxa identified, the fish Trematomus eulepidotus and the squid Psychroteuthis glacialis and Allu-roteuthis antarcticus accounted for 64% and 74% of the diets by mass at Auster and Taylor Glacier, respectively. The sizes of fish varied temporally but not in a linear manner from winter to summer. Adult penguins captured fish ranging in length from 60 mm (Pfeura-gramma antarcticum) to 250 mm (T. eulepidotus) and squid (P. glacialis) from 19 to 280 mm in mantle length. The length-frequency distribution of P. glacialis showed seasonal variation, with the size of squid increasing from winter to summer. The energy density of chick diet mix increased significantly prior to “fledging”.

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