Winter and summer foraging location of Adélie penguins from Mawson, Davis and Casey

Adélie penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae) are a key Southern Ocean higher-order predator with a diet which is largely comprised of the fishery target species Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba). Being central-place foragers during the breeding season, their foraging range is restricted by the physiological, environmental and time constraints imposed upon them. Knowledge of their summer and winter foraging locations is relevant to WG-EMM in terms of understanding the spatial and temporal scales of influence on CEMP parameters as well as the management of the Southern Ocean marine living resources in relation to potential direct or indirect overlap with the krill fishery. Here we present winter and summer tracking data for the Mawson, Davis and Casey Adélie penguin breeding populations. During the summer months, the birds foraged within several hundred kilometres of their breeding colonies, and at times, they accessed the highly productive shelf break. In contrast, during winter, the penguins travelled up to 3000 km away from their breeding colonies with their journey being closely associated with the sea-ice edge. This study highlights the large spatial scale of influences during the winter months for these three east Antarctic Adélie penguin populations.