据美国《科学》杂志在线新闻报道,利用绑在企鹅腿上的微型定位仪,研究人员最终找到了这个淡季中的目的地。整个冬季,这种鸟类都会在中南印度洋极地锋区的狭窄海域中游水,在这里,寒冷的南极海水与来自北方的温暖海水混合在一起,从而形成了一个由甲壳纲动物构成的盛宴。
研究人员表示,由于长冠企鹅的种群数量正在迅速下降,因此这一发现突出了保护这一紧急冬季避难所的重要性。研究人员在5月15日的《生物学快报》网络版上报告了这一发现。(生物谷Bioon.com)
生物谷推荐原始出处:
Biology Letters,doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2009.0265,C. A. Bost,P. N. Trathan
Where do penguins go during the inter-breeding period? Using geolocation to track the winter dispersion of the macaroni penguin
C. A. Bost1,*, J. B. Thiebot1, D. Pinaud1, Y. Cherel1 and P. N. Trathan2
Although penguins are key marine predators from the Southern Ocean, their migratory behaviour during the inter-nesting period remains widely unknown. Here, we report for the first time, to our knowledge, the winter foraging movements and feeding habits of a penguin species by using geolocation sensors fitted on penguins with a new attachment method. We focused on the macaroni penguin Eudyptes chrysolophus at Kerguelen, the single largest consumer of marine prey among all seabirds. Overall, macaroni penguins performed very long winter trips, remaining at sea during approximately six months within the limits of the Southern Ocean. They departed from Kerguelen in an eastward direction and distributed widely, over more than 3.106 km2. The penguins spent most of their time in a previously unrecognized foraging area, i.e. a narrow latitudinal band (47–49° S) within the central Indian Ocean (70–110° E), corresponding oceanographically to the Polar Frontal Zone. There, their blood isotopic niche indicated that macaroni penguins preyed mainly upon crustaceans, but not on Antarctic krill Euphausia superba, which does not occur at these northern latitudes. Such winter information is a crucial step for a better integrative approach for the conservation of this species whose world population is known to be declining.