CESIMAR - CENPAT   25625
CENTRO PARA EL ESTUDIO DE SISTEMAS MARINOS
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
First exploration of the feeding areas of Brown Skuas during the incubation stage at Islas Blancas, Chubut.
Autor/es:
YORIO, P.; COPELLO, S.; MONTALTI, D.; SUÁREZ, N.; PICHEGRU, L.; SECO PON, J.P.
Lugar:
Puerto Iguazú
Reunión:
Congreso; Ornithological Congress of the Americas (XVII RAO/XXIV CBO/XCV AFO); 2017
Institución organizadora:
Association of Field Ornithologists, Sociedade Brasileira de Ornitologia y Aves Argentinas
Resumen:
The Brown Skua (Catharacta antarctica) occupies an importantposition in the marine ecosystem, functioning like opportunistic predator,scavenger and kleptoparasite. To date, very little is known about its trophicecology on the Patagonian coast. To evaluate the patterns of use of feedingareas during the incubation period, a total of 10 global positioning systemloggers were deployed on incubating adults during the 2016 breeding season. Atotal of 104 foraging trips were recorded, 70% of which were performed indaylight hours. On average, each bird performed 2 trips per day (range: 1-5).The average distance traveled in foraging trips was 44.5 ± 36.4 km (range:0.7-472.0), with an average duration of 110 ± 67 minutes. The feeding areaswere located at 13 ± 10 km from the nests, all located at-sea and mainly to theeast of the colony. The total feeding area used by the skuas was 1173 km2. This is the firststudy on the spatial ecology of skuas in Patagonia and shows that at leastduring incubation, Brown Skuas from Islas Blancas obtain their food at sea.These results show the importance of waters surrounding the colony in thetrophic ecology of the species and suggest the need for further studies toassess if Brown Skuas maintain this feeding strategy during other stages of thereproductive cycle.