Adelie penguins foraging consistency and site fidelity are conditioned by breeding status and environmental conditions.

ABSTRACT: There is a growing interest in studying consistency and site fidelity of individuals to assess, respectively, how individual behaviour shapes the population response to environmental changes, and to highlight the critical habitats needed by species. In Antarctica, the foraging activity of central place foragers like Adélie penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae) is constrained by the sea-ice cover during the breeding season. We estimated the population-level repeatability in foraging trip parameters and sea-ice conditions encountered by birds across successive trips over several years, and we examined their foraging site fidelity linked to sea-ice concentrations throughout the chick-rearing season. Penguins' foraging activity was repeatable despite varying annual sea-ice conditions. Birds' site fide

SUBMITTER: Michelot C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7822312 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature