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  • Adelie penguin breeding success records for Bechervaise Island, Mawson since 1990-91. Data include counts of occupied nests and chick counts when either 2/3 of the nests have creched or when all nests have creched. Breeding success values are calculated as the number of chicks per occupied nest. Breeding Success = the number of chicks raised to fledging per nest with eggs Breeding success is calculated from four different whole island counts: 1) the number of incubating nests (i.e. the number of nest with eggs) - 'incubating nest count' 2) the number of brooding nests (i.e. the number of nests brooding chicks) - 'brooding chick count' 3) the number of chicks present when 2/3 of the nests have creched their chicks - '2/3-creche count' 4) the number of chicks present when all the nests have creche their chicks - 'fully-creche count' Each colony on the island is manually counted by field observers, using 'counters', three times each. Counts within 10% of each other are used to average the number of nests or chicks for each colony and then in later calculations to determine breeding success. Incubating nest counts are conducted on or about 2nd December; Brooding chick counts are conducted on or about the 7th January; 2/3-creche counts on or about the 19th January; and Fully-creche chick counts on or about 26th January. Whole island 2/3-creche and fully-creche chick count dates are determined from calculating when 2/3 and all study nests in the census area (study colonies) have creche their chicks. This work was completed as part of ASAC Project 2205, Adelie penguin research and monitoring in support of the CCAMLR Ecosystem Monitoring Project. The fields in this dataset are: Year Breeding success Occupied nests

  • This dataset contains: 1) GPS tracking data of breeding birds tracked over the 2017/18 season; 2) Prey remains surveyed at the nests of breeding birds during the 2017/18 season The dataset download contains an Excel spreadsheet with several worksheets. One worksheet contains descriptions of each of the column headings of the other worksheets.

  • This dataset contains: 1) count data from a series of surveys of brown skua nest numbers and breeding success conducted from 2008/09 to 2017/18; 2) historic skua nest count data and concurrent estimates of rabbit abundance (1974/75 to 2009/10); 3) stable isotope data from feather samples taken from skua chicks during the 2017/18 season to compare stable isotope ratios between different feather types; 4) stable isotope data from feather samples taken from skua chicks from 2008/09 to 2017/18; 5) a small dataset of stable isotope data from skua prey tissue samples; 6) the nest locations of skuas surveyed in the seasons 2009/10, 2012/13 and 2017/18.

  • Metadata record for data from ASAC Project 484 See the link below for public details on this project. ---- Public Summary from Project ---- Emperor penguins are the only birds that breed in the Antarctic winter. They feed mainly on fish and squid but also ingest krill. Changes in food availability due to oceanographic or climatic factors, or to the extent of sea ice (through the processes of global warming) will have a direct impact on the breeding success and population size of the penguins. By counting the number of males that incubate at mid-winter each year, we can monitor trends in their population size. Counts of fledglings in spring (November) tell us how successful the penguins bred. The download file contains an excel spreadsheet which presents a summary of known Emperor Penguin colonies in the area of the Australian Antarctic Territory (AAT), and a file which details counts of male emperor penguins at the Taylor Glacier colony. A description of the column headings used in the spreadsheet is below. Colony: Colony name lat, long: latitude and longitude of colony discovered: date colony was discovered current est pop (BP): Current estimated population size in breeding pairs - current as at date the colony was last seen last seen: date the colony was last seen counting method: method used to count the breeding pairs in the colony comments: any applicable comments reference: references relating to the colony Taken from the 2009-2010 Progress Report: Public summary of the season progress: Population size of colonies fluctuates which is why long term monitoring studies are necessary to detect trends. At the emperor penguin colony at Taylor Glacier, monitored continuously since 1988, a slight downward trend is apparent but is not (yet?) statistically significant. The colony was visited three times: once in winter to obtain an estimate of the number of adults in the colony (roughly equivalent to the number of breeding pairs), and twice during the late chick rearing season to estimate breeding success. The count of adults in 2009 was the lowest on record. Reasons for this are still unknown.

  • This study aimed to quantify the effects of helicopter operations on Antarctic wildlife, with an emphasis on determining minimum safe over-flight altitudes and landing distances for a range of species. An experimental approach was adopted whereby wildlife were exposed to helicopters either over-flying or landing at specific altitudes or distances while the behaviour, and in some cases physiology, of individual animals were recorded. Two types of helicopters were used in the study: a Sikorsky S-76 (twin engine) and a Squirrel AS350 (single engine). This metadata record relates to the responses of Adelie Penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae) over a number of phases of their breeding cycle. The fields in this dataset are: Time Action Date