The diet of Emperor Penguins Aptenodytes forsteri in Adelie Land, Antarctica |
| |
Authors: | CHRISTOPHE OFFREDO VINCENT RIDOUX |
| |
Institution: | Laboratoire d'Océanographie Biologique, Universitéde Bretagne Occidentale, 29287 Brest Cedex, France. |
| |
Abstract: | This first quantitative study of the diet of Emperor penguins is based on 29 stomach contents collected with a water off-loading method in Adelie Land. The Emperor is largely ichthyophagous (65% by number and 95% by weight) and feeds extensively on small nototheniids (97% of the fish are 40–125 mm in overall length). These results and data on meal size and feeding frequency of the chick suggest that Emperors are off-shore foraging birds offering little competition for food with other sea-birds or mammals. |
| |
Keywords: | |
|
|