Inter-colony and sex differences in the effects of parental body condition and foraging effort on the brood growth of Adélie penguins

• Published in: Journal of Ethology
• Main Authors: Watanuki, Yutaka, Takahasi, Akinori, Sato, Katsufumi, Kato, Akiko, Bost, Charles - André
• Other Authors: Graduate School of Fisheries Sciences, Hokkaido University Sapporo, Japan, Laboratory of Animal Ecology, Graduate School of Agriculture, Department of Polar Science, Graduate University for Advanced Studies, National Insitute of Polar Research, National Institute of Polar Research Tokyo (NiPR), Centre d'Études Biologiques de Chizé (CEBC), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2004
• Subjects: Food provisioning; Body condition; Seabird; Foraging distance; Diving time; [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology; [SDE.ES]Environmental Sciences/Environmental and Society; Dumont d'Urville; Dumont-d'Urville; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-00187120; https://doi.org/10.1007/s10164-003-0108-9

8 pages International audience Among colonies with different foraging distances, central-place-foraging seabirds may change their foraging and reproductive efforts. We compared the body condition, meal frequency, and diving behavior of male and female Adélie penguins at two locations: Dumont d'Urville, where there was little sea ice and they foraged in open waters far from the colony; and Syowa, where there was heavy, fast sea ice and they foraged in ice cracks close to the colony. The parental mass decrease rate during the chick-rearing period was similar between colonies and between sexes. A large individual variation in meal frequency positively affected the brood growth rate, but daily underwater time did not. A weak but significant positive effect of body condition on brood growth rate was found only in males at Syowa. It was suggested that males work with better body condition than females. We propose the hypothesis that the regional difference in the distance to the feeding sites and the sex difference in body energy reserve might constrain the capacity to regulate reproductive effort.