Skip Navigation



Behavioral Ecology Advance Access published online on June 11, 2004
Behavioral Ecology, doi:10.1093/beheco/arh086
© 2004 by International Society for Behavioral Ecology
This Article
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Lay Summary
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
15/5/824    most recent
arh086v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Ropert-Coudert, Y.
Right arrow Articles by Kato, A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Ropert-Coudert, Y.
Right arrow Articles by Kato, A.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Received December 15, 2003
Accepted December 22, 2003

Patterns of energy acquisition by a central place forager: benefits of alternating short and long foraging trips

Yan Ropert-Coudert 1*, Rory P. Wilson 2, Francis Daunt 3, Akiko Kato 1

1 National Institute of Polar Research, 1-9-10 kaga, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo 173-8515, Japan
2 Institut für Meereskunde, Düsternbrooker Weg 20, D-24105, Kiel, Germany
3 NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Hill of Brathens, Banchory, AB31 4BW, United Kingdom

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: yan{at}nipr.ac.jp.


  Abstract

In some seabirds, foraging trips have been defined as either long or short, with the length of time spent traveling to the foraging area apparently a critical feature in determining foraging trip length. Using logger technology, together with complimentary data from published studies, we investigated traveling and foraging times in 18 free-living Adélie Penguins Pygoscelis adeliae, which were foraging for chicks. Most deep, foraging dives were distributed around the center of the foraging trip. This central tendency was particularly apparent if the cumulative amount of undulations in the depth profile (indicative of prey capture) was considered during deep dives; values started to increase before 20.9% and ceased after 67.2% of the dives had occurred. This concentration of the feeding activity in the middle of the foraging trip indicates that birds traveled to and from a prey patch whose location varied little over the birds' trips. These data form the basis for a simple model that uses traveling and foraging times together with projected rates of prey ingestion and chick and adult gastric emptying to determine that there are occasions when, to optimize rates of prey ingestion while at sea for both adults and chicks, birds should conduct foraging trips of bimodal lengths.

Key words: gastric emptying, seabirds, self-feeding, Spheniscidae, provisioning .


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Behav EcolHome page
M. Beaulieu, A.-M. Thierry, T. Raclot, Y. Le Maho, Y. Ropert-Coudert, H. Gachot-Neveu, and A. Ancel
Sex-specific parental strategies according to the sex of offspring in the Adelie penguin
Behav. Ecol., July 1, 2009; 20(4): 878 - 883.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.