scholarly journals Spatial and Temporal Variability in the Foraging Areas of Breeding King Penguins

The Condor ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 104 (3) ◽  
pp. 528-538 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klemens Pütz

Abstract King Penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus) from breeding islands in the Indian Ocean (Crozet and Kerguelen Islands) and the Atlantic Ocean (South Georgia and Falkland Islands) were equipped with global location sensors to compare their foraging patterns during different times of the year. In summer, all birds investigated traveled toward the Antarctic Polar Front (APF), irrespective of whether they bred to the north (Crozet Islands, Falkland Islands), within (Kerguelen Islands) or to the south (South Georgia) of this hydrographic feature. Whereas most birds remained north of the APF and foraged in waters of the Antarctic Polar Frontal Zone, some penguins also traveled, or remained (South Georgia), south of the APF and foraged in Antarctic waters. It appeared that food resources in the vicinity of the APF were sufficiently predictable to warrant travel of several hundred km by King Penguins for foraging. Data collected on the winter distribution of King Penguins indicated at least two different foraging strategies. Birds from the oceanic Crozet Islands foraged beyond the APF in the Antarctic waters, whereas birds from the Falkland Islands relied also on the resources provided by the highly diverse and productive slope of the Patagonian Shelf. However, despite these differences, in both cases minimum distances of sometimes more than 10 000 km were covered. Further research on the foraging habitats of King Penguins over the entire breeding season and the temporal and spatial changes of oceanographic features is necessary to obtain a comprehensive picture on the variability in the foraging ranges of King Penguins. Variabilidad Espacial y Temporal en las Áreas de Forrajeo de Individuos Reproductivos de Aptenodytes patagonicus Resumen. Comparamos los patrones de forrajeo de individuos reproductivos de Aptenodytes patagonicus provenientes de las islas del Océano Índico (Islas Crozet y Kerguelen) y Océano Atlántico (Islas Georgia del Sur y Malvinas) durante diferentes períodos del año, equipando pingüinos con sensores de localización global. En el verano, todas las aves investigadas viajaron hacia el Frente Polar Antártico (FPA), independientemente de si se reprodujeron al norte (Islas Crozet, Islas Malvinas), en (Islas Kerguelen) o al sur (Islas Georgias del Sur) de aquella entidad hidrográfica. Aunque la mayoría de las aves permanecieron al norte del FPA y forrajearon en aguas de la Zona Polar Frontal Antártica, algunos pingüinos también viajaron hacia el sur del FPA y forrajearon en aguas antárticas. Al parecer los recursos alimenticios en el FPA fueron lo suficientemente predecibles como para justificar que los pingüinos viajen varios cientos de kilómetros para forrajear. Los datos colectados durante la distribución de invierno de A. patagonicus indicaron por lo menos dos estrategias de forrajeo diferentes. Las aves provenientes de las islas oceánicas Crozet forrajearon más allá del FPA en aguas antárticas, mientras que las aves provenientes de las Islas Malvinas dependieron además de los recursos que provee la diversa y productiva plataforma marítima patagónica. Sin embargo, a pesar de estas diferencias, en ambos casos a veces las aves cubrieron distancias mínimas de más de 10 000 km. Para obtener un panorama completo sobre la variabilidad en los rangos de forrajeo de A. patagonicus es necesario efectuar más investigaciones sobre los hábitats de forrajeo de estos pingüinos durante la totalidad de la época reproductiva y durante todos los cambios temporales y espaciales de las entidades hidrográficas.

Formidable legal and administrative complexities arise from conflicting claims to jurisdiction and the continued absence of generally recognized sovereignty over much of the region. Existing conservation measures fall into three groups: elaborate laws made by governments claiming Antarctic territories, more restricted laws, and simple instructions for particular expeditions. The Antarctic Treaty, 1959, made it possible to begin coordinating all these separate instruments. No claimed jurisdiction has been surrendered or recognized: each government has started to harmonize its own control measures with the ‘Agreed Measures for the Conservation of Antarctic Fauna and Flora’, 1964. This scheme applied only to land areas and has since been evolving in the light of experience. Although not yet formally approved by all the governments concerned, it is working effectively by voluntary agreement. Different approaches are necessary for conservation of Southern Ocean resources, especially krill. A start has been made with the ‘ Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals’, 1972. There are many outstanding problems: all require effective cooperation between scientific and legal advisers, diplomats and politicians. Mention is made of recent British conservation legislation for South Georgia, the Falkland Islands and the Tristan da Cunha group. Some of the next steps are outlined.


Phytotaxa ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 340 (1) ◽  
pp. 86 ◽  
Author(s):  
DAG O. ØVSTEDAL ◽  
LOUISE LINDBLOM ◽  
KERRY KNUDSEN ◽  
ALAN M. FRYDAY

Acarospora malouina Øvstedal & K. Knudsen is described from the Falkland Islands. It is morphologically very similar to the Antarctic species A. gwynnii but differs in chemistry, ecology and evidence from molecular data.


1999 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 150-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.P. Croxall ◽  
A.D. Black ◽  
A.G. Wood

Records (by a scientific observer on a longline fishing vessel around the Falkland Islands) of 86 different individually colour-banded wandering albatrosses from South Georgia, provide new insights into the use of the waters of the Patagonian shelf slope by birds from breeding grounds some 600 km to the south-east across the Antarctic Polar Front. Birds recorded were aged from 3–39 years, almost the full range (except 1 and 2 year olds) of South Georgia colour-banded birds, about 5% of whose colour-banded population was observed during the study. Immature birds (up to age 7 years) formed only 9% of the total; this may reflect relative absence from the area but might also relate to their subordinate status to adults at fishing vessels. Most birds seen were current breeders at South Georgia, including both sexes in the month prior to arrival on the breeding grounds (October), females during the pre-laying exodus (December) and both sexes during incubation (January) and throughout the main chick-rearing period (May, June, October). Only birds which had already failed were seen in the brooding period (March–April), when foraging trips are too short to reach the Falklands. Females outnumbered males in all these categories, supporting suggestions of different distributions of the sexes at sea during breeding. Birds of both sexes that had bred at South Georgia in the previous year were seen mainly between January and April. Birds that had not bred for at least three years were mainly males and mainly seen in January. These data indicate the importance of the waters near the Patagonian Shelf, especially around the Falklands, for wandering albatrosses from South Georgia, particularly breeding birds but also birds in their year(s) between breeding attempts. This is of particular relevance, given the globally threatened status of the species and the possibility of hydrocarbon exploitation in waters around the Falklands.


Author(s):  
Salvatore Siciliano ◽  
Marcos César de Oliveira Santos

A specimen of Arnoux's beaked whale was recorded from the coast of Brazil on 4 August 1993. The specimen was identified from the skeleton in 1994. Arnoux's beaked whales (Berardius arnuxii) are known to have a circumpolar distribution in the Southern Hemisphere, from the Antarctic continent and ice edge (78°S) north to about 35°S in the southern Pacific, southern Atlantic, and Indian Ocean. Few sighting and stranding records are known. Its distribution in deep and cold waters, mainly far from the coast and in higher latitudes, is probably the main reason preventing the collection of more information on the biology of this species. It is still considered as ‘insufficiently known’ by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Sighting records are more common in Antarctic waters, where some individuals sometimes become trapped in ice holes, and in the South Pacific. Strandings are relatively rare. About 30 strandings were reported around New Zealand, and single ones occurred in southern Australia, in South Africa, Argentina and the Falkland Islands. The majority of records occurred south of the latitude 40°S (Ross, 1984).


Polar Record ◽  
1959 ◽  
Vol 9 (62) ◽  
pp. 446-449
Author(s):  
C. J. C. Wynne-Edwards

During the Antarctic summer seasons of 1956–57 and 1957–58, a British Royal Naval Hydrographic Survey Unit operated off the coast of west Graham Land. Working sometimes from stations of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey, and sometimes from camp sites, an area of coastline from Port Lockroy southwards to Ferin Head was systematically examined, triangulated and charted.The mobility of this small unit depended on one all-important factor, the constant availability of a specially converted 29 ft. motor boat, which acted as both transport and home.


Polar Record ◽  
1946 ◽  
Vol 4 (32) ◽  
pp. 372-384 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. M. Wordie

The Falkland Islands Dependencies are divided into two main groups; the one consisting of South Georgia with its important whaling stations together with the South Orkneys and the South Sandwich Islands, and the other of the South Shetlands and the Graham Land peninsula. Coats Land and other large land areas in the Antarctic continent itself are also included. The Dependencies were the first part of Antarctica to be brought under British control, and are defined in Letters Patent of 1908 and 1917.


1977 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 268-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.E. Sugden ◽  
C.M. Clapperton

Evidence is presented for a more extensive ice cover over South Georgia, the South Orkney Islands, the South Shetland Islands, and the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. Ice extended across the adjacent submarine shelves to a depth of 200 m below present sea level. Troughs cut into the submarine shelves by ice streams or outlet glaciers and ice-scoured features on the shelf areas suggest that the ice caps were warm-based. The South Shetland Islands appear not to have been overrun by continental ice. Geomorphological evidence in two island groups suggests that the maximum ice cover, which was responsible for the bulk of glacial erosion, predates at least one full glaciation. Subsequently there was a marine interval and then a glaciation which overran all of the lowlying peninsulas. The Falkland Islands, only 2° of latitude north of South Georgia, were never covered by an ice cap and supported only a few slightly enlarged cirque glaciers. This suggests that the major oceanographic and atmospheric boundary represented by the Antarctic Convergence, which is presently situated between the Falkland Islands and South Georgia, has remained in a similar position throughout the glacial age. Its position is probably bathymetrically controlled.


Polar Record ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 275-283
Author(s):  
Piotr Gryz ◽  
Alina Gerlée ◽  
Małgorzata Korczak-Abshire

AbstractThe king penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus) is a pelagic species that breeds on sub-Antarctic islands relatively close to the Antarctic polar front. After a significant decline at the beginning of the twentieth century because of widespread exploitation by sealers, the species’ numbers are currently increasing, with observed local fluctuations. There has also been an increase in the number of sightings in the Antarctic, and recorded breeding attempts in this area. Here we present the history of observations of king penguins from 1977 to 2017 in two Antarctic Specially Protected Areas: ASPA No. 128 Western Shore of Admiralty Bay, and No. 151 Lions Rump, King George Island, South Shetland Islands (Western Antarctic). Additionally, we report on a new breeding site at Lions Rump, the third known breeding site for this species in the South Shetland Islands. Together with observations from other parts of the archipelago, the information in this study supports earlier suggestions of a southerly expansion of this species and of attempts to colonise the Antarctic Peninsula region.


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