Intra- and inter-individual changes in little penguin diving and isotopic composition over the breeding season

摘要: Seabirds allocate different amounts of energy to reproduction throughout the breeding season, depending on trade-off between their own needs and those chicks and/or changes in environmental conditions. Provisioning parents therefore modulate foraging behaviour diet accordingly. However, for diving seabirds, many studies have extrapolated from individuals monitored over a short period then assumed observed patterns were representative birds’ activity entire stage/season. To address this shortcoming, we continuously performance ten male little penguins incubation chick fledging. Simultaneously, isotopic composition was examined using δ15N δ13C values whole blood samples collected every 3 weeks. Birds dived more frequently but performed shallower shorter dives as season progressed. The guard especially different, with birds spending consistently smaller proportion time at bottom performing fewer prey pursuits, compared other periods. Isotopic varied less within although there slight tendency decrease through time. Finally, highly repeatable individuals, suggesting that specialized areas. Diving still explained small significant part variance values. Our results suggest it is important take into account individual variability course well timing bio-logger deployment stage when designing bio-logging studies.