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Temporal variation in the diet of gentoo penguins at the Falkland Islands

Version 2 2024-06-17, 15:32
Version 1 2016-03-14, 15:34
journal contribution
posted on 2024-06-17, 15:32 authored by JM Handley, AMM Baylis, P Brickle, P Pistorius
Knowledge of diet is critical in interpreting the ecological roles of marine top predators and provides information towards their conservation and management. The Falkland Islands hold the largest number of breeding gentoo penguins. Yet knowledge of gentoo penguin diet at the Falklands is limited to either broad taxonomic divisions of prey items or dietary samples collected only on a single day. This study is the first to investigate gentoo penguin diet at Cow Bay, Falklands, to the species level, over repeated sampling intervals during the breeding period. Through stomach content analysis, we determined diet over a large temporal scale (2002/2003/2004–2011/2012/2013) and between the guard and crèche periods of chick rearing. The principle prey item by reconstituted mass was rock cod fish Patagonotothen spp., for all periods (47–78 %) except that of the 2012/2013 crèche period (19 %) when Falkland herring Sprattus fugensis made up the bulk of the diet (52 %). Of the cephalopods recovered, Patagonian squid Doryteuthis gahi was prominent (1–24 %), while crustaceans contributed negligibly to gentoo penguin diet. Our findings revealed that gentoo penguins breeding at the Falkland Islands were primarily demersal foragers with an ability for pelagic feeding. Diet choice appears to reflect prey availability.

History

Journal

Polar biology

Volume

39

Pagination

283-296

Location

Berlin, Germany

ISSN

0722-4060

eISSN

1432-2056

Language

eng

Publication classification

C Journal article, C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2015, Springer

Issue

2

Publisher

Springer

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