To quantify the dietary preferences and trophic level consumption of post-breeding adult female Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella), we analysed the carbon:nitrogen composition of whiskers and blood samples from the females. Females were captured towards the end of the lactation period (March/April) and whiskers and a blood sample were collected at this time. Females were generally recaptured just prior to or after giving birth the following season and a further whisker and blood sample were collected at this time. Metadata for each individual include: Site, GLS ID, year, flipper tag number, season, sampling date, tissue type, whisker segment number, cumulative length along whisker of the segment, d15N, d13C, percentage N, percentage C and CN ratio.

To quantify the post-breeding movements of adult female Antarctic females (Arctocephalus gazella) we tracked females using Biotrack GLS (geolocation) data loggers. Females were captured towards the end of the lactation period (March/April) and the GLS tag, affixed to a Dalton flipper tag, was deployed in the trailing edge of the left or right foreflipper. Tags were generally retrieved just prior to or after giving birth the following season. Data files were extracted from the tags using BASTrak software. .lig - light data .tem - temperature data .act - activity data Metadata for each individual include: Site, year, GLS ID, sex, age, deployment site, lat and long of deployment site, flipper tag number, deployment and retrieval times (GMT).

Metadata record for data expected from ASAC Project 2940 See the link below for public details on this project. Public: The extent of Antarctic winter sea-ice influences all aspects of the Antarctic marine food-web. We will use natural variations in inter-annual ice extent, to assess how a key component of that ecosystem, the predators, use the sea ice zone. Core foraging areas and dietary signals for a key Antarctic predator (Antarctic fur seal) will be identified. We will use newly developed, technology to track the animals, and stable isotopes to examine tropic linkages. Combined with satellite-derived sea-ice data, this will lead to the development of a model to predict how changing sea-ice patterns will influence Antarctic marine predator communities. Project Objectives: 1. Use large samples of newly-developed (and tested) animal-borne miniature geolocating light level recorders to population level information on the spatial extent of movements of Antarctic fur seals, thereby quantifying the extent of the use of the winter pack-ice and associated waters by these abundant predators. 2. To quantify how changes in winter ice extent influence the location of core foraging areas for this species. 3. To develop models to investigate how changing ice conditions in the future will influence the movements of this species and to examine a range of climate-change scenarios. Taken from the 2007-2008 Progress Report: No field work was conducted at Macquarie Island in the last 12 months. This was due to the decision by the state government to not issue permits for the work. With the help of our colleagues from BAS we did however manage to deploy 20 GLS light loggers on Antarctic fur seals at South Georgia. Taken from the 2008-2009 Progress Report: Objective 1 has been revised to the study of Antarctic fur seals only (see below). Research is progressing well with 78 animals tracked in 2008 and a further 80 expected in 2009. Objectives 2 and 3 will follow once field data is available for both years (May 2010). Isotopic analysis of blood and whisker samples for the 2008 season will commence in May 2009 once samples have been received. Taken from the 2010-2011 Progress Report: Public summary of the season progress: This study has quantified the response of the Antarctic fur seal (Arctocephalus gazella) to inter-annual variation in oceanographic and winter ice conditions. We have measured the winter spatial foraging patterns of 66 adult females from three circum-Antarctic populations over two years (2008, 2009) during 114 trips to sea, while simultaneously recording in situ water temperature. Stable isotope analysis of fur seal blood and whisker samples indicates that adult females feed on a range of lower (krill) to higher (fish and squid) trophic levels across their winter range. Broad-scale habitat preferences across the range of the species indicate the importance of shelf, ice edge, frontal and oceanic and continental upwelling features in determining winter foraging movements.

The Retrospective Analysis of Antarctic Tracking Data (RAATD) is a Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research (SCAR) project led jointly by the Expert Groups on Birds and Marine Mammals and Antarctic Biodiversity Informatics, and endorsed by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. The RAATD project team consolidated tracking data for multiple species of Antarctic meso- and top-predators to identify Areas of Ecological Significance. These datasets constitute the compiled tracking data from a large number of research groups that have worked in the Antarctic since the 1990s. This metadata record pertains to the "standardized" version of the data files. These files contain position estimates as provided by the original data collectors (generally, raw Argos or GPS locations, or estimated GLS locations). Original data files have been converted to a common format and quality-checking applied, but have not been further filtered or interpolated. Periods at the start or end of deployments were identified and discarded if there was evidence that location data during these periods did not represent the animals' at-sea movement. For example, tags may have been turned on early (thereby recording locations prior to their deployment on animals) or animals may have remained at the deployment site, e.g. the breeding colony, for an extended period at the start or end of the tag deployment. Some tracks also showed a marked deterioration in the frequency and quality (for PTTs) of location estimates near the end of a track. Such locations were visually identified based on maps of each track in conjunction with plots of location distance from deployment site against time. This information is captured in the location_to_keep column appended to each species’ data file (1 = keep, 0 = discard). The code used to trim the tracks can be found in the https://github.com/SCAR/RAATD repository. This data set comprises one metadata csv file that describes all deployments, along with data csv files (17 files, one per species) containing the position data. For details of the file formats, consult the data paper. The data are also available in a filtered version (see https://data.aad.gov.au/metadata/records/SCAR_EGBAMM_RAATD_2018) that have been processed using a state-space model in order to estimate locations at regular time intervals.

The Retrospective Analysis of Antarctic Tracking Data (RAATD) is a Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research (SCAR) project led jointly by the Expert Groups on Birds and Marine Mammals and Antarctic Biodiversity Informatics, and endorsed by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. The RAATD project team consolidated tracking data for multiple species of Antarctic meso- and top-predators to identify Areas of Ecological Significance. These datasets constitute the compiled tracking data from a large number of research groups that have worked in the Antarctic since the 1990s. This metadata record pertains to the "filtered" version of the data files. These files contain position estimates that have been processed using a state-space model in order to estimate locations at regular time intervals. For technical details of the filtering process, consult the data paper. The filtering code can be found in the https://github.com/SCAR/RAATD repository. This data set comprises one metadata csv file that describes all deployments, along with data files (3 files for each of 17 species). For each species there is: - an RDS file that contains the fitted filter model object and model predictions (this file is RDS format that can be read by the R statistical software package) - a PDF file that shows the quality control results for each individual model - a CSV file containing the interpolated position estimates For details of the file contents and formats, consult the data paper. The data are also available in a standardized version (see https://data.aad.gov.au/metadata/records/SCAR_EGBAMM_RAATD_2018_Standardised) that contain position estimates as provided by the original data collectors (generally, raw Argos or GPS locations, or estimated GLS locations) without state-space filtering.