Emperor Penguin Colony at Beaufort Island, Ross Sea, Antarctica

Nature ◽  
1966 ◽  
Vol 210 (5039) ◽  
pp. 925-926 ◽  
Author(s):  
BERNARD STONEHOUSE
Keyword(s):  
Ross Sea ◽  
Emperor Penguin ◽  
Penguin Colony

Rise and fall of Ross Sea emperor penguin colony populations: 2000 to 2012

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 201-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
G.L. Kooyman ◽  
P.J. Ponganis
Keyword(s):  
Ross Sea ◽  
Aerial Photographs ◽  
Census Count ◽  
Emperor Penguin ◽  
Annual Variations ◽  
Nesting Site ◽  
Continuous Record ◽  
Ice Conditions ◽  
Penguin Colony ◽  
Nearly Continuous

AbstractThere are seven emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) colonies distributed throughout the traditional boundaries of the Ross Sea from Cape Roget to Cape Colbeck. This coastline is c. 10% of the entire coast of Antarctica. From 2000 to 2012, there has been a nearly continuous record of population size of most, and sometimes all, of these colonies. Data were obtained by analysing aerial photographs. We found large annual variations in populations of individual colonies, and conclude that a trend from a single emperor penguin colony may not be a good environmental sentinel. There are at least four possibilities for census count fluctuations: i) this species is not bound to a nesting site like other penguins, and birds move within the colony and possibly to other colonies, ii) harsh environmental conditions cause a die-off of chicks in the colony or of adults elsewhere, iii) the adults skip a year of breeding if pre-breeding foraging is inadequate and iv) if sea ice conditions are unsatisfactory at autumn arrival of the adults, they skip breeding or go elsewhere. Such variability indicates that birds at all Ross Sea colonies should be counted annually if there is to be any possibility of understanding the causes of population changes.

Trends in western Ross Sea emperor penguin chick abundances and their relationships to climate

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.M. Barber-Meyer ◽  
G.L. Kooyman ◽  
P.J. Ponganis
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Ross Sea ◽  
Linear Regression Analysis ◽  
Sufficient Evidence ◽  
Emperor Penguin ◽  
Climate Variables ◽  
Sea Ice Extent ◽  
Western Ross Sea

AbstractThe emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) is extremely dependent on the extent and stability of sea ice, which may make the species particularly susceptible to environmental change. In order to appraise the stability of the emperor penguin populations at six colonies in the western Ross Sea, we used linear regression analysis to evaluate chick abundance trends (1983–2005) and Pearson's r correlation to assess their relation to two local and two large-scale climate variables. We detected only one significant abundance trend; the Cape Roget colony increased from 1983 to 1996 (n = 6). Higher coefficients of variation in chick abundances at smaller colonies (Cape Crozier, Beaufort Island, Franklin Island) suggest that such colonies occupy marginal habitat, and are more susceptible to environmental change. We determined chick abundance to be most often correlated with local Ross Sea climate variables (sea ice extent and sea surface temperature), but not in consistent patterns across the colonies. We propose that chick abundance is most impacted by fine scale sea ice extent and local weather events, which are best evaluated by on-site assessments. We did not find sufficient evidence to reject the hypothesis that the overall emperor penguin population in the Ross Sea was stable during this period.

Emperor penguin colony at Cape Washington, Antarctica

Polar Record ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 26 (157) ◽  
pp. 103-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald L. Kooyman ◽  
Donald Croll ◽  
Sheridan Stone ◽  
Steven Smith
Keyword(s):  
Emperor Penguin ◽  
Dispersal Pattern ◽  
Mammal Species ◽  
Emperor Penguins ◽  
Parental Feeding ◽  
Large Colony ◽  
Hydrurga Leptonyx ◽  
History Of ◽  
Penguin Colony ◽  
Ice Edge

AbstractThis article describes the natural history of a large colony of emperor penguins Aptenodytes for steri, its size, dispersal pattern of chicks, and associations with other bird and mammal species. A mid-season count of 19,364 chicks indicated that about 20–25,000 breeding pairs had been present in June and July. The colony was fragmented into several sub-groups which showed different mean sizes of chicks and survival to fledging. Other species observed included leopard seals Hydrurga leptonyx, the only major predators, which preyed heavily on both adults and fledging chicks. Fledgelings left the colony over a period of about 10 days; departure was an active process in which the chicks walked to the ice edge and dispersed in groups, swimming consistently southward. At this time they were still in about 60% down and weighed about 10 kg, having lost some 30% of the heaviest mass achieved during parental feeding.

Breeding habitats of emperor penguins in the western Ross Sea

1993 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald L. Kooyman
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Ross Sea ◽  
Open Water ◽  
Emperor Penguin ◽  
Water Access ◽  
Emperor Penguins ◽  
Breeding Habitats ◽  
Fresh Snow ◽  
Fast Ice ◽  
Western Ross Sea

Within the Western Ross Sea, there are six emperor penguin colonies of widely different size that occur exclusively on sea ice. In 1990 a survey of all six sites, two by close overflights and four from the ground, showed that the breeding habitats were highly variable. The most important physical characteristics of these habitats appear to be stable fast ice, nearby open water, access to fresh snow, and shelter from the wind.

Population estimates of emperor penguins at Amanda Bay, Ingrid Christensen Coast, Antarctica

Polar Record ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 207-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Wienecke ◽  
Peter Pedersen
Keyword(s):  
Breeding Population ◽  
Emperor Penguin ◽  
Emperor Penguins ◽  
History Of ◽  
Penguin Colony ◽  
Antarctic Treaty ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Made In

ABSTRACTIn 2008, the emperor penguin Aptenodytes forsteri colony at Amanda Bay, East Antarctica, was designated an Antarctic Specially Protected Area by the 31st Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine. It is only the third emperor penguin colony in the Australian Antarctic Territory to receive this status. The colony has been known to exist since 1956 and numerous visits have been made to it, especially by personnel from Australia's Davis station. On a number of occasions, attempts were made to estimate the number of birds in the colony in order to obtain an insight into the size of the breeding population. Here we report on the history of visitation to the colony since the 1950s and examine the quality of information collected with regard to the usefulness of this information in terms of population analyses. We also report the results of the first visit to the Amanda Bay colony made in winter with the specific purpose of estimating the number of birds present and of highlighting the need for long term monitoring programmes to assess the viability of emperor penguins in future.

Effects of giant icebergs on two emperor penguin colonies in the Ross Sea, Antarctica

2007 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald L. Kooyman ◽  
David G. Ainley ◽  
Grant Ballard ◽  
Paul J. Ponganis
Keyword(s):  
Ross Sea ◽  
Emperor Penguin ◽  
Ice Shelf ◽  
West Antarctic Ice Sheet ◽  
North West ◽  
Ross Ice Shelf ◽  
The North ◽  
West Antarctic ◽  
South West ◽  
Wintering Areas

The arrival in January 2001 in the south-west Ross Sea of two giant icebergs, C16 and B15A, subsequently had dramatic affects on two emperor penguin colonies. B15A collided with the north-west tongue of the Ross Ice Shelf at Cape Crozier, Ross Island, in the following months and destroyed the penguins' nesting habitat. The colony totally failed in 2001, and years after, with the icebergs still in place, exhibited reduced production that ranged from 0 to 40% of the 1201 chicks produced in 2000. At Beaufort Island, 70 km NW of Crozier, chick production declined to 6% of the 2000 count by 2004. Collisions with the Ross Ice Shelf at Cape Crozier caused incubating adults to be crushed, trapped in ravines, or to abandon the colony and, since 2001, to occupy poorer habitat. The icebergs separated Beaufort Island from the Ross Sea Polynya, formerly an easy route to feeding and wintering areas. This episode has provided a glimpse of events which have probably occurred infrequently since the West Antarctic Ice Sheet began to retreat 12 000 years ago. The results allow assessment of recovery rates for one colony decimated by both adult and chick mortality, and the other colony by adult abandonment and chick mortality.

scholarly journals Emperors on thin ice: three years of breeding failure at Halley Bay

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 133-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter T. Fretwell ◽  
Philip N. Trathan
Keyword(s):  
Historical Record ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Emperor Penguin ◽  
Climate Change Scenarios ◽  
Tenfold Increase ◽  
Breeding Failure ◽  
Penguin Colony ◽  
Fast Ice ◽  
Strong Winds ◽  
Early Breakup

AbstractSatellite imagery is used to show that the world's second largest emperor penguin colony, at Halley Bay, has suffered three years of almost total breeding failure. Although, like all emperor colonies, there has been large inter-annual variability in the breeding success at this site, the prolonged period of failure is unprecedented in the historical record. The observed events followed the early breakup of the fast ice in the ice creeks that the birds habitually used for breeding. The initial breakup was associated with a particularly stormy period in September 2015, which corresponded with the strongest El Niño in over 60 years, strong winds, and a record low sea-ice year locally. Conditions have not recovered in the two years since. Meanwhile, during the same three-year period, the nearby Dawson-Lambton colony, 55 km to the south, has seen a more than tenfold increase in penguin numbers. The authors associate this with immigration from the birds previously breeding at Halley Bay. Studying this ‘tale of two cities’ provides valuable information relevant to modelling penguin movement under future climate change scenarios.

scholarly journals Ancient Adélie penguin colony revealed by snowmelt at Cape Irizar, Ross Sea, Antarctica

Geology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven D. Emslie
Keyword(s):  
Ross Sea ◽  
Bone Collagen ◽  
Adélie Penguin ◽  
Pygoscelis Adeliae ◽  
Adelie Penguin ◽  
Terra Nova Bay ◽  
Penguin Colony ◽  
Marine Productivity ◽  
First Time ◽  
Adélie Penguins

The Ross Sea (Antarctica) is one of the most productive marine ecosystems in the Southern Ocean and supports nearly one million breeding pairs of Adélie penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae) annually. There also is a well-preserved record of abandoned penguin colonies that date from before the Last Glacial Maximum (>45,000 14C yr B.P.) through the Holocene. Cape Irizar is a rocky cape located just south of the Drygalski Ice Tongue on the Scott Coast. In January 2016, several abandoned Adélie penguin sites and abundant surface remains of penguin bones, feathers, and carcasses that appeared to be fresh were being exposed by melting snow and were sampled for radiocarbon analysis. The results indicate the “fresh” remains are actually ancient and that three periods of occupation by Adélie penguins are represented beginning ca. 5000 calibrated calendar (cal.) yr B.P., with the last occupation ending by ca. 800 cal. yr B.P. The presence of fresh-appearing remains on the surface that are actually ancient in age suggests that only recently has snowmelt exposed previously frozen carcasses and other remains for the first time in ~800 yr, allowing them to decay and appear fresh. Recent warming trends and historical satellite imagery (Landsat) showing decreasing snow cover on the cape since 2013 support this hypothesis. Increased δ13C values of penguin bone collagen further indicate a period of enhanced marine productivity during the penguin “optimum”, a warm period at 4000–2000 cal. yr B.P., perhaps related to an expansion of the Terra Nova Bay polynya with calving events of the Drygalski Ice Tongue.

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