King penguins adjust foraging effort rather than diet when faced with poor foraging conditions

• Published in: Ibis
• Main Authors: Brisson-Curadeau, Émile, Bost, Charles‐andré, Cherel, Yves, Elliot, Kyle
• Other Authors: Centre d'Études Biologiques de Chizé - UMR 7372 (CEBC), La Rochelle Université (ULR)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University = Université McGill Montréal, Canada
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2024
• Subjects: diet; Southern Ocean; specialist; isotope; foraging; seabird; king penguin; [SDE]Environmental Sciences; King Penguins
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-04284040; https://hal.science/hal-04284040/document; https://hal.science/hal-04284040/file/Brisson%20Curadeau%20Bost%20Ibis%202023.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1111/ibi.13287

International audience The links between foraging success, foraging effort and diet in a myctophid specialist seabird, the King Penguin Aptenodytes patagonicus, were investigated during seven breeding seasons using tracking and isotopic data. Despite the variable foraging conditions encountered by the birds, isotopic signature (a proxy for diet) were invariable throughout the study. On the other hand, penguins stayed longer at sea when the foraging success indices (i.e. prey capture atempts per day and mass gained per day) were low. While King Penguins can compensate low prey capture rates by increasing foraging effort, their specialist diet during reproduction makes the species particularly sensitive to prey availability, with its conservation tightly linked to its main prey.