Factors affecting brood patch development in Magellanic Penguins

BARRIONUEVO MELINA, MARCHISIO NAHUEL & FRERE ESTEBAN

ACTA ORNITHOLOGICA

MUSEUM & INST ZOOLOGY

Lugar: Warszawa, POLAND; Año: 2016 vol. 51 p. 1 - 11

0001-6454

Brood patches allow the transfer of heat to eggs for their successful embryonic development, and in manyspecies determine egg temperature during incubation. We investigated brood patch development of MagellanicPenguins Spheniscus magellanicus in Isla Quiroga, Argentina, during 2012?2013. Here, we evaluate if brood patch development(in a narrow sense i.e. increase of the brood patch area and temperature measured with an electronic probethermometer) varies according to laying date of the eggs, and with respect to adults? body condition and size, totalclutch volume, and/or the sex of the adults. We found that brood patch temperature reaches its maximum when egglaying is finished, while brood patch area is fully developed starting from the end of the first quarter of the incubationperiod. The later the penguins started to breed the warmer the initial brood patches ? when first egg is laid. Besides,the incubation period was shorter in penguins breeding late. Furthermore, adults in a good body condition had coolerinitial brood patches than adults with poor body condition. In contrast, total clutch volume, body size index, and sex ofthe adults were not related to brood patch development. We conclude that initial brood patch temperature inMagellanic Penguins is associated with environmental factors, like laying date, and physiological attributes, like bodycondition.