Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology Commons^™

Foraging Tactics In Dynamic Sea-Ice Habitats Affect Individual State In A Long-Ranging Seabird, Arnaud Tarroux, Yves Cherel, Per Fauchald, Akiko Kato, Oliver P. Love, Yan Ropert-Coudert, Gunnar Spreen, Øystein Varpe, Henri Weimerskirch, Nigel G. Yoccoz, Sandrine Zahn, Sébastien Descamps

Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research Publications

Individual heterogeneity in diet and foraging behaviour is common in wild animal populations, and can be a strong determinant of how populations respond to environmental changes. Within populations, variation in foraging behaviour and the occurrence of individual tactics in relation to resources distribution can help explain differences in individual fitness, and ultimately identify important factors affecting population dynamics. We examined how foraging behaviour and habitat during the breeding period related to the physiological state of a long-ranging seabird adapted to sea ice, the Antarctic petrel Thalassoica antarctica. Firstly, using GPS tracking and state-switching movement modelling (hidden Markov models) on 124 …