Abstract
Predation can have major effects on population dynamics, but predator–prey interactions in marine ecosystems have rarely been studied. While the king penguin is one of the most studied seabirds, little is known about the impact of predation on its population dynamics. Here, we determine the impact of the main predators (giant petrels and skuas) on king penguin breeding success taking into account the nocturnal predation of petrels. We found that predation is the most important source of breeding failure for king penguins. The smallest chicks within crèches are the most hunted. The periphery of the colony suffers the highest risk of predation during summer. Our study shows the unequal quality of some areas inside the colony in terms of predation risk and breeding success, and points out the importance of timing in successful breeding.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the Institut Polaire Français—Paul-Emile Victor for financial and logistical support (Programme 137). This work was partly supported by the project Zones Ateliers of the Programme Environnement Vie et Société of the CNRS. We are very grateful to Géraldine Mabille, Dominique Berteaux and the three referees for valuable comments on the manuscript and to Stephan Mangin for help in the field. This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Institut Français pour la Recherche et la Technologie Polaires.
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Descamps, S., Gauthier-Clerc, M., Le Bohec, C. et al. Impact of predation on king penguin Aptenodytes patagonicus in Crozet Archipelago. Polar Biol 28, 303–310 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-004-0684-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-004-0684-3