Title of Report:
Rockhopper Penguin GLS deployments New Island
Paper No:
6.1
Date:
23 August 2011
Report of:
Environmental Officer
Research procedure
Dr Maud Poisbleau of the University of Antwerp wishes to study the winter distribution of the
rockhopper penguin population breeding at New Island. She intends to deploy a total of 20
GLS devices on the birds as well as taking small blood and feather samples from each bird.
GLS Devices
These are the same devices which were deployed by Falklands Conservation at the end of last
summer on Rockhopper Penguins on Beauchene Island and Steeple Jason Island. Dr
Poisbleau is liaising with FC and will consider the success of the FC deployments prior to
deploying on New Island.
The full application is attached for reference.
APPLICATION FOR RESEARCH LICENCE
FROM FALKLAND ISLANDS GOVERNMENT
We would like to apply for a research licence to continue the rockhopper
penguin study at New Island in 2012, for the field seasons 2011-2012 and
2012-2013.
1. Name of Organisation:
2. Contact (Name of Person
Department Biology /Ethology,
heading this research): Maud
University of Antwerp
Poisbleau
Address:
Contact No: + 32 3 265.23.47
Campus Drie Eiken, Building C Email: [email protected]
Room 1.10, Universiteitsplein 1, Contact/Participating organization in
2610 Antwerp (Wilrijk),
the Falkland Islands: New Island
Belgium
Conservation Trust
PLEASE PROVIDE ALL FILES AS .doc, .xls or picture files NOT .jpeg
3. Purpose of Research:
MATERNAL INVESTMENT IN EGGS IN RELATION TO THE DISTRIBUTION AT SEA
DURING THE NON-BREEDING SEASON IN WILD ROCKHOPPER PENGUINS
4. Research procedure:
We will study the winter distribution of the rockhopper penguin population
breeding at the New Island Nature Reserve. In March/April 2012 (moult period),
40 adult breeders (20 males and 20 females) will be carefully selected. 20 will be
measured, bled and equipped with a GLS device. The other 20 will be similarly
manipulated but without the installation of GLS. They will be used as control
birds. These 40 birds will be captured again as soon as they arrive back at the
colony for the next breeding season (early October 2012). They will be measured
and weighed again. In addition, we will also collect 1 ml of blood and 2-3
feathers for analyses.
5. Number of people on team: 3 (+ 2 in supervision or collaboration)
Names
Job description (ie field
assistant)
Dr. Maud Poisbleau
Scientist
Laurent Demongin
Field assistant
Dr. Charles-André Bost
Scientist
Dr. Marcel Eens
Group leader
Dr. Petra Quillfeldt
Scientist (cooperation)
6. Please briefly state qualifications and experience of each
member of the research team
Maud Poisbleau gained a PhD in Behavioural Ecology in 2005. Laurent
Demongin has been a professional fieldworker and bird ringer for 20 years.
Both have significant experience in the study, capture and handling of wild
birds. They have initiated this rockhopper project at New Island in 2006.
Charles-André Bost is a scientist at the Centre d'Etude Biologique de Chizé
(CEBC, France). He devised the GLS method for crested penguins. The
team is supervised by Prof. Dr. Marcel Eens from the University of
Antwerp, in collaboration with Dr. Petra Quillfeldt in the context of the
7. Location of Research:
New Island National Nature Reserve
9. Please state whether you have
any of the following types of
insurance (either each member
personally and/or as a group)
(insert x where appropriate)
All
individuals
Medical*
Group
8. Landowners Permission
Obtained (delete as appropriate):
Yes
Permission given (delete as
appropriate):
Verbally
10. Does your employer /
organization /university have
Workmans compensation &
Employers liability insurance
(delete as appropriate):
Yes
x
Personal accident
Public liability
Professional indemnity
Travel
*Should cover medical evacuation for emergency
I, the undersigned, am applying to the Falkland Islands Government for a
licence to carry out the research detailed within this application. All the
information provided is, to my knowledge, correct and is the planned course
of research action. Should any changes be made to any of the information
above I shall notify the Environmental Planning Officer accordingly.
Signed:
Date: 10.07.2011
Proposal for the rockhopper penguin licence - Year 2012
Since the application for the research licence submitted in July 2009
(Research Licence No: R06/2009), we have performed two field seasons and
analysed the obtained data. We also continue to analyse data from previous
field seasons. We will not repeat the male colour manipulation and the
androgen
injection
experimentations.
The
male
colour
manipulation
experimentation realised in 2009 did not give the results we expected. We
obtained promising results from the androgen injection experimentation
realised in 2010 (a manuscript will be submitted shortly) but the injection had
a significant impact on the individual hatching success. However, we avoided
impacting the population hatching success, replacing eggs that failed to hatch
at the end of the hatching period with one chick found outside its own nest
that we considered as lost by their original parents or with one A-chick which
was too small compared to its sibling B-chicks and that we, therefore,
considered as having no survival hope in its initial nest.
Recent discussions with penguin specialists highlight that it is also
especially important to thoroughly explore the distribution and foraging
behaviour of rockhopper penguin populations. It has to be carried out within
different breeding populations in order to monitor the variation between
them. We have the unique opportunity to perform such a study at New Island
where the close monitoring we have performed since 2006 is proving to be a
great asset.
Context
Very little information is available on the winter distribution of penguins,
especially of rockhopper penguins. This is a regrettable gap in our data as
penguins are major consumers of the food chains of the Southern
hemisphere. Several studies suggest a decrease in their populations without
any clear factor being highlighted. One of our assumptions is a decrease in
primary productivity in wintering areas of these birds. To test for this
hypothesis, it is necessary to access their distribution at sea during the nonbreeding period.
The Falkland Islands provide a habitat for the largest population of
Southern rockhopper penguins. The objective here will be to determine the
distribution at sea during winter for one of the rockhopper penguin
populations of the Falkland Islands. So far, the only data available are from
the satellite tracking. Unfortunately, this information is incomplete, because of
a marked bias as these tags are too large for such small diving birds.
Moreover, since it recently appeared that rockhopper penguins used different
foraging places according to their breeding colony place, even within the
same island (see Masello et al. 2010 Ecosphere), it could be interesting to
study the wintering distribution for several rockhopper penguin populations
from the Falkland Islands.
The Centre d'Etude Biologique de Chizé (CEBC-CNRS, France) team,
we work with, has just completed a study on the 3 districts of the Indian subAntarctic Ocean. Using the Global Locating System (GLS), they described the
distribution at sea during the non-breeding season for 3 species of the genus
Eudyptes (Bost et al. 2009 Biology Letters, Thiebot et al. 2011 MEPS, Thiebot
et al. In press Ecology).
Methodology
For the present study, we will use the same GLS technology. A great
advantage of this method is the extremely small size and weight of the GLS
devices (6 g). They will be attached to a small plastic ring on the leg (see
pictures). These rings are made in the laboratory of CEBC-CNRS and they are
well tolerated by the animals. They avoid hydrodynamics issues, even in the
long term, as demonstrated by the past experiments of this team. The
recovery rate of instrumented birds after 6 months at sea is high, at least 65
%. This is a minimal return rate as the study colonies were visited only 2 or 3
times at spring. However, it is necessary to work on a large number of
individuals because the constraints on the material are very strong at this
time and the long deployments may give uncertain results. After recapture of
the animals and analysis of light recorded in the GLS, it is possible to
reconstruct the time of sunrise and sunset times (indicating latitude) and day
length (indicating longitude). To perform these complex analyses, a specific
software has been installed by the CEBC-CNRS team.
To determine the role of these predators in the food web during
winter, we will also use the method of stable isotopes of nitrogen and carbon.
The analyses will be carried out on blood and feather samples in collaboration
with Yves Cherel (CEBC-CNRS).
Experimental design
40 adult individuals (20 females and 20 males) will be captured on the
Settlement colony (New Island) at the end of the moult period (beginning of
April). They will be measured, weighed and equipped. We will also collect 1
ml of blood and 2-3 feathers. A total of 10 males and 10 females will be
equipped with a GLS while the other 20 individuals (control birds) will be
subjected to the same manipulations but without any GLS installation. Only
adult breeders already equipped with a tag will be selected for this study.
Therefore, we can be certain that these birds are very well attached to the
study colony and that we can expect to find them in the same place during
the breeding season 2012/2013.
These birds will be captured again as soon as they come back to the
colony for the next breeding season (early October 2012). They will be
measured and weighed again. In addition, we will also collect 1 ml of blood
and 2-3 black and white feathers for analyses.
These birds will be selected to be those already included in the
maternal investment study (eggs collected in 2009 and 2010). They will
probably also be part of a new study on this subject in 2012, enabling us to
examine the effect of the winter foraging behaviour on their breeding
behaviour and especially on maternal investment. A new research licence
detailing this new project will be requested in June 2012. From comparisons
with previous breeding seasons and with additional birds collected
simultaneously, we will also test whether GLS tracking could impact breeding
biology.
IMPORTANT NOTE: We acknowledge that Falklands Conservation has
already installed some GLS devices on rockhopper penguins breeding at
Beauchene and Steeple Islands during the last moult period in order to study
their winter distribution. They do not have the GLS back yet. They will get an
idea of their success in October/November 2011. As shown in the present
application, we think that our studies are not in opposition but are
supplementary. Moreover, we will benefit from several crucial assets: the ring
supporting the GLS device and designed by the CEBC-CNRS team has been
proven to minimise the impact on birds, we are working on a population that
we carefully monitor since 2006, more than 1 200 are now individually
equipped with a tag, the return rate of the adults we record from one
breeding season to the next one is very high (90 - 95%), the weighbridge
device can help us to establish whether missing birds (if any) are back at the
colony.