Playing energetic games; towards a holistic view of foraging in seabirds

WILSON, R.; SHEPARD, E.; QUINTANA, F.

Lugang, Taiwan

Congreso; The Pacific Seabird Group, Special International Meeting; 2007

<!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:EN-US; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:70.85pt 3.0cm 70.85pt 3.0cm; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> One of the difficulties of understanding animal biology is relating the inter-dependence of conventional facets; populations, behaviour, life history strategies, ecology etc. Here we propose that energy can be used as a unifying concept because both individuals and actions can ultimately be broken down into absolute energy and rate of change of energy, respectively. This avenue is explored using seabirds as a model with particular emphasis on penguins and using overall dynamic body acceleration as a new powerful tool to help resolve the energetic costs of behaviours.