Fish in the diet of the Antarctic Shag Phalacrocorax atriceps at Laurie Island, South Orkney Islands.

CASAUX R.; CORIA N.; BARRERA-ORO E.

POLAR BIOLOGY

SPRINGER

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 1997 vol. 18 p. 219 - 222

0722-4060

Abstract   The analysis of twenty nine stomach contents collected in a colony close to Pirie Peninsula, South Orkney Islands, from 2 January to 18 February 1995, showed that fish were by far the main prey of the Antarctic Shag Phalacrocorax bransfieldensis, followed by octopods, decapods and gammarids. The fish Notothenia coriiceps constituted the bulk of the diet; however, its importance decreased by the end of the study when Nototheniops nudifrons was the most important prey. The composition of the stomach contents varied throughout the breeding season according to changes in the chicks' energetic demands; as chicks grow older the adults increased the mass of the loads carried to the nests preying on larger fish, a phenomenon also observed at the South Shetland Islands.