Plastic ingestion by Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) throughout their annual cycle

LUCIANA GALLO; TATIANA RECABARREN-VILLALÓN; ROSANA M. ROMANO; KARINA C. ALVAREZ; ANDRÉS H. ARIAS; LUCAS S. RODRÍGUEZ PIRANI; ALLAN SANTOS; MARCELA UHART; RALPH VANSTREELS; A. LORENA PICONE; LEANDRO EGERT

Viña del Mar

Congreso; 11 th International Penguin Congress; 2023

The Magellanic penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus, MP) is the most abundant seabirdand an emblematic species in the Patagonian Sea. We investigated the ingestion ofplastics by MP along their breeding areas in central Argentina and wintering/migrationareas in Argentina and Brazil, 2019-2022. In Argentina, the data was obtained frombeach/colony surveys in Chubut province (n=68), and from beach surveys andrehabilitation centers in Buenos Aires province (n=29). In Brazil, data from beachsurveys and rehabilitation centers was obtained from Beach Monitoring Program(n=785). Macro-mesoplastics (>5mm) were found in 37.6% of carcasses, with a higherfrequency in individuals that died during rehabilitation (40.7% Brazil juveniles, 48.1%Argentina juveniles), and at migration areas (39.9% juveniles, 16.7% adults) versusbreeding areas (6.5% juveniles, 9.1% adults). No plastic ingestion was recorded incarcasses collected at breeding colonies (nine adults), except one chick. In a subset of21 carcasses of juvenile MP beach-cast in Buenos Aires coastline, we found that 100%showed microplastics (