Monitoring of Antarctic seabird diet and at-sea distribution
1 Purpose
The main objective of this project is to monitor the distribution at sea and diet 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 15 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 behavior, reproductive success or survival. A small sample of petrels will be used to study the diet and the importance of Antarctic krill. The stomach flushing technique will be used, which has proven to create only low or no distress to the birds. These birds will also be sampled for blood to assess the level of contaminants present in their organism. Only a small amount of blood (2 mL for Antarctic petrel,1 mL from snow petrels and 3 mL for skuas) will be sampled from the brachial vein, which is also a classical procedure having no or negligible effect on bird behavior, survival or success.
3 Expected benefit
This project is part of the Norwegian Polar Institute monitoring program in Antarctica. By describing the marine areas used by seabirds as well as their diet (and more specifically, the importance of Antarctic krill), 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 40 GPS loggers on Antarctic petrels (in chick-rearing) and 20 GPS loggers on Snow petrels (in chick rearing). We will also deploy 30 light loggers on Antarctic petrels, 20 on snow petrels and 20 on South polar skuas to study their winter migration. Among the petrels that will receive a logger, 20 Antarctic petrels and 10 snow petrels will sampled for blood and stomach content. The skuas (n=20) that will receive a logger will also be sampled for blood.
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 and/or sampled 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 and diet 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 15 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 behavior, reproductive success or survival. A small sample of petrels will be used to study the diet and the importance of Antarctic krill. The stomach flushing technique will be used, which has proven to create only low or no distress to the birds. These birds will also be sampled for blood to assess the level of contaminants present in their organism. Only a small amount of blood (2 mL for Antarctic petrel,1 mL from snow petrels and 3 mL for skuas) will be sampled from the brachial vein, which is also a classical procedure having no or negligible effect on bird behavior, survival or success.
3 Expected benefit
This project is part of the Norwegian Polar Institute monitoring program in Antarctica. By describing the marine areas used by seabirds as well as their diet (and more specifically, the importance of Antarctic krill), 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 40 GPS loggers on Antarctic petrels (in chick-rearing) and 20 GPS loggers on Snow petrels (in chick rearing). We will also deploy 30 light loggers on Antarctic petrels, 20 on snow petrels and 20 on South polar skuas to study their winter migration. Among the petrels that will receive a logger, 20 Antarctic petrels and 10 snow petrels will sampled for blood and stomach content. The skuas (n=20) that will receive a logger will also be sampled for blood.
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 and/or sampled 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.