Monitoring of Antarctic seabird at-sea distribution
1 Purpose
The main objective of this project is to monitor the distribution at sea during the breeding and non-breeding seasons of three species of Antarctic seabirds in Dronning Maud Land
2 Distress
The distress of birds will be minimal in this experiment. Capture and handling will be done within less than 10 minutes and birds will only carry miniaturized external loggers. Tracking of birds during the breeding season will be done with GPS loggers weighing <3% of the body mass ; these loggers will only stay a few days on birds. Tracking of the winter distribution will be done with light-loggers, weighing <0.5% of bird body mass. These loggers will stay year round on the bird (attached to a leg-ring). These two types of loggers and deployment procedures have proven to have no detectable effect on bird behaviour, reproductive success or survival.
3 Expected benefit
This project is part of the Norwegian Polar Institute monitoring program in Antarctica. By describing the marine areas used by seabirds, and their potential inter-annual changes, we will be able to understand better the potential changes in their population status and trend.
4 Number of animals, and what kind
Every year, we plan to deploy 60 GPS loggers on Antarctic petrels (30 in incubation and 30 in chick-rearing) and 20 GPS loggers on Snow petrels (10 in incubation and 10 in chick rearing). We will also deploy 30 light loggers on Antarctic petrels, 20 on snow petrels and 20 on South polar skuas.
5 How to adhere to 3R
Replacement is not relevant as the work focuses on these three specific species.
Reduction is done by limiting the number of individuals receiving a logger to a minimum while keeping a sample size large enough to be representative of the population.
Refinement is done by using some of the smallest and lightest loggers available on the market. This ensures that potential disturbance will be minimal.
The main objective of this project is to monitor the distribution at sea during the breeding and non-breeding seasons of three species of Antarctic seabirds in Dronning Maud Land
2 Distress
The distress of birds will be minimal in this experiment. Capture and handling will be done within less than 10 minutes and birds will only carry miniaturized external loggers. Tracking of birds during the breeding season will be done with GPS loggers weighing <3% of the body mass ; these loggers will only stay a few days on birds. Tracking of the winter distribution will be done with light-loggers, weighing <0.5% of bird body mass. These loggers will stay year round on the bird (attached to a leg-ring). These two types of loggers and deployment procedures have proven to have no detectable effect on bird behaviour, reproductive success or survival.
3 Expected benefit
This project is part of the Norwegian Polar Institute monitoring program in Antarctica. By describing the marine areas used by seabirds, and their potential inter-annual changes, we will be able to understand better the potential changes in their population status and trend.
4 Number of animals, and what kind
Every year, we plan to deploy 60 GPS loggers on Antarctic petrels (30 in incubation and 30 in chick-rearing) and 20 GPS loggers on Snow petrels (10 in incubation and 10 in chick rearing). We will also deploy 30 light loggers on Antarctic petrels, 20 on snow petrels and 20 on South polar skuas.
5 How to adhere to 3R
Replacement is not relevant as the work focuses on these three specific species.
Reduction is done by limiting the number of individuals receiving a logger to a minimum while keeping a sample size large enough to be representative of the population.
Refinement is done by using some of the smallest and lightest loggers available on the market. This ensures that potential disturbance will be minimal.