Biologging of emperor penguins – attachment techniques and associated deployment performance

An increasing number of marine animals are equipped with biologgers, to study their physiology, behaviour and ecology, often for conservation purposes. To minimise the impacts of biologgers on the animals′ welfare, the Refinement principle from the Three Rs framework (Replacement, Reduction, Refinement) urges to continuously test and evaluate new and updated biologging protocols. Here, we propose alternative and promising techniques for emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri ) capture and on–site logger deployment that aim to mitigate the potential negative impacts of logger deployment on these birds. We equipped adult emperor penguins for short–term (GPS, Time–Depth Recorder (TDR)) and long–term (i.e. planned for one year) deployments (ARGOS platforms, TDR), as well as juvenile emperor penguins for long-term deployments (ARGOS platforms) in the Weddell Sea area where they had not yet been studied. We describe and qualitatively evaluate our protocols for the attachment of biologgers on–site at the colony, the capture of the animals and the recovery of the devices after deployment. We report unprecedented recaptures of long–term equipped adult emperor penguins (50% of equipped individuals recaptured after 290 days). Our data demonstrate that the traditional technique of long–term attachment by gluing the biologgers directly to the back feathers is detrimental to the birds. It causes excessive feather breakage and the loss of the devices at an early stage. We therefore propose an alternative method of attachment for back–mounted devices. This technique led to successful year–round deployments on 37.5% of the equipped juveniles. Finally, we also disclose the first deployments of leg–bracelet mounted TDRs on emperor penguins. Our findings highlight the importance of monitoring potential impacts of biologger deployments on the animals and the need to remain critical towards established and new protocols.

Emperor penguins and the First German South Polar Expedition, 1901–1903: The elusive colony in Posadowsky Bay

Members of the First German South Polar Expedition (1901–1903) encountered emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) near their wintering station in the sea ice of Posadowsky Bay, East Antarctica. The penguins appeared to be generally less of scientific interest, but more of a useful resource. Despite the presence of chicks, the men were uncertain about the existence of a breeding colony, and did not record the position of the penguin aggregation they encountered. In later years, only a few sightings confirmed the existence of a colony, and the last ground visit took place in 1960. Based on satellite imagery, a colony appears to exist even now. This paper examines what impact the expedition may have had on this colony, and whether it still exists.

A Novel Resource Allocation and Scheduling Based on Priority Using Metaheuristic for Cloud Computing Environment

In cloud computing systems, current works do not challenge the database failure rates and recovery techniques. In this chapter, priority-based resource allocation and scheduling technique is proposed by using the metaheuristic optimization approach spotted hyena optimizer (SHO). Initially, the emperor penguins predict the workload of user server and resource requirements. The expected completion time of each server is estimated with this predicted workload. Then the resources activities are classified based on the criteria of the deadline and the asset. Further, the employed servers are classified based on the workload and the estimated completed time. The proposed approach is compared with existing resource utilization techniques in terms of percentage of resource allocation, missed deadlines, and average server workload.

Cervical air sac oxygen profiles in diving emperor penguins: parabronchial ventilation and the respiratory oxygen store

Some marine birds and mammals can perform dives of extraordinary duration and depth. Such dive performance is dependent on many factors, including total body oxygen (O2) stores. For diving penguins, the respiratory system (air sacs and lungs) constitutes 30-50% of the total body O2 store. To better understand the role and mechanism of parabronchial ventilation and O2 utilization in penguins both on the surface and during the dive, we examined air sac partial pressures of O2 (PO2) in emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) equipped with backpack PO2 recorders. Cervical air sac PO2s at rest were lower than in other birds, while the cervical air sac to posterior thoracic air sac PO2 difference was larger. Pre-dive cervical air sac PO2s were often greater than those at rest, but had a wide range and were not significantly different from those at rest. The maximum respiratory O2 store and total body O2 stores calculated with representative anterior and posterior air sac PO2 data did not differ from prior estimates. The mean calculated anterior air sac O2 depletion rate for dives up to 11 min was approximately one-tenth that of the posterior air sacs. Low cervical air sac PO2s at rest may be secondary to a low ratio of parabronchial ventilation to parabronchial blood O2 extraction. During dives, overlap of simultaneously recorded cervical and posterior thoracic air sac PO2 profiles supported the concept of maintenance of parabronchial ventilation during a dive by air movement through the lungs.