Winter dispersal of Magellanic penguins at Martillo Island: movements and trophic ecology

RICCIALDELLI LUCIANA; RAYA REY ANDREA; DODINO SAMANTA; PUTZ KLEMENS; POLITO, MJ

Dunedin

Congreso; 10 th International Penguin Conference; 2019

The dispersal of penguins during the non-breeding period is a critical period that can affectbreeding success and survival in the following season. Thus, knowledge of penguin foraging ecologyduring this energy-intensive period is crucial to understand their responses to ecosystem variability.We recorded winter dispersal of Magellanic penguins Spheniscus magellanicus from Martillo Island(Beagle Channel, Argentina) using LAT2900 geolocators in 2017. We collected whole blood sampleswhen the penguins first arrived at the colony in spring to study their pre-breeding foraging nicheusing stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope analysis. In total, 26 adults were equippedafter their annual molt, of which 24 were re-captured. However, only 20 were still equipped withdevices and only 9 datasets could be recovered successfully. We found that penguins dispersednorth along the Patagonian coast up to just south of Buenos Aires, Argentina (