Makhado Azwianewi Benedict, Crawford Robert J M, Dyer Bruce M, Masotla Makhudu, Lowther Andrew
Oceans and Coasts, Republic of South Africa Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa.
FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa.
R Soc Open Sci. 2025 May 28;12(5):231800. doi: 10.1098/rsos.231800. eCollection 2025 May.
Seabirds can disperse widely when searching for prey, particularly during nonbreeding periods. Conservation measures predominately focus on protecting breeding colonies, while spatial protection at sea is often based on knowledge of the distribution of breeding adults, despite accumulating evidence that marine habitats used by immature birds sometimes differ from those of adults. Juvenile emperor penguins from Atka Bay, west Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica, tracked immediately after fledging performed long migrations to the northern extents of the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources subareas 48.4 and 48.6. Individuals did not remain long at their northern positions, before commencing a rapid southerly movement to within a few hundred km of the marginal ice zone (MIZ). The initial migratory movement was broadly synchronous across individuals. The southward movement and subsequent change to area-restricted searching were consistent with the MIZ representing a potentially important feeding habitat for juvenile emperor penguins. Spatio-temporal management mechanisms may be beneficial in reducing threats to these young penguins.
海鸟在寻找猎物时能够广泛扩散，尤其是在非繁殖期。保护措施主要集中在保护繁殖地，而海上的空间保护通常基于对繁殖成年个体分布的了解，尽管越来越多的证据表明，未成年鸟类使用的海洋栖息地有时与成年鸟类不同。来自南极毛德皇后地西部阿特卡湾的幼年帝企鹅在羽翼未丰后立即被追踪，它们进行了长途迁徙，到达南极海洋生物资源养护公约第48.4和48.6分区的北部范围。个体在其北部位置停留的时间不长，随后开始迅速向南移动，进入距边缘冰区（MIZ）几百公里的范围内。个体之间最初的迁徙运动大致同步。向南移动以及随后转变为区域限制搜索，这与边缘冰区是幼年帝企鹅潜在重要觅食栖息地的情况相符。时空管理机制可能有助于减少对这些幼年企鹅的威胁。
