| Title | Marine foraging and annual fish consumption of a south polar skua population in the maritime Antarctic |
| Author | Hahn, S.; Ritz, M.S.; Reinhardt, K. |
| Author Affil | Hahn, S., Friedrich-Schiller- University Jena, Institute of Ecology, Jena, Federal Republic of Germany. Other: Netherlands Institute of Ecology, Netherlands; University of Sheffield, United Kingdom |
| Source | Polar Biology, 31(8), p.959-969, . Publisher: Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany. ISSN: 0722- 4060 |
| Publication Date | July 2008 |
| Notes | In English. 78 refs. GeoRef Acc. No: 286311 |
| Index Terms | Antarctica--King George Island; Southern Ocean; Antarctica; Aves; behavior; Charadriiformes; Chordata; diet; ecology; feeding; King George Island; models; Neornithes; physiology; Pisces; Potter Peninsula; Scotia Sea Islands; South Shetland Islands; Tetrapoda; Vertebrata |
| Abstract | Pelagic fish are an important component of Antarctic food webs but few quantitative data exist on energy transfer from fish to seabirds for the Seasonal Pack- ice Zone. We studied a local population of south polar, skuas Catharacta maccormicki during a whole breeding cycle and estimated its entire annual food consumption. The lengths of foraging trips suggested that skuas foraged in an area of 817 km2 of coastal waters around the breeding site. Their fish prey consisted almost entirely of two pelagic species, Electrona antarctica and Pleuragramma antarcticum, with individual mean energy contents of 28.62 and 30.26 kJ/g dry weight and body masses of 4.6 and 10.9 g, respectively. (mod. journ. abst.) |
| URL | http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s00300-008-0436-x |
| Publication Type | journal article |
| Record ID | 84574 |