dc.contributor.author | Gaglio, D | |
dc.contributor.author | Sherley, R | |
dc.contributor.author | Ryan, P | |
dc.contributor.author | Cook, T | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2018-05-04T12:27:14Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2018-05-29 | |
dc.description.abstract | There is a growing desire to integrate the food requirements of predators living in marine
ecosystems impacted by humans into sustainable fisheries management. We used non-
invasive video-recording, photography and focal observations to build time-energy budget
models and to directly estimate the fish mass delivered to chicks by adult greater crested terns
Thalasseus bergii breeding in the Benguela ecosystem. Mean modelled adult daily food
intake increased from 140.9 g·d−1 of anchovy Engraulis capensis during incubation to 171.7g·d−1
and 189.2 g·d−1 when provisioning small and large chicks, respectively. Modelled prey
intake expected to be returned to chicks was 58.3 g·d−1 (95% credible intervals: 44.9–75.8 g·d−1)
over the entire growth period. Based on our observations, chicks were fed 19.9 g·d−1
(17.2–23.0 g·d−1) to 45.1 g·d−1 (34.6–58.7 g·d−1 25 ) of anchovy during early and late
provisioning, respectively. Greater crested terns have lower energetic requirements at the
individual (range: 15–34%) and population level (range: 1–7%) than the other Benguela
endemic seabirds that feed on forage fish. These modest requirements – based on a small
body size and low flight costs – coupled with foraging plasticity have allowed greater crested
terns to cope with changing prey availability, unlike the other seabirds species using the same
exploited prey base. | en_GB |
dc.description.sponsorship | Our research was supported by a Department of Science and Technology-National Research
Foundation Centre of Excellence grant to the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, the
Leiden Conservation Foundation (RBS) and our institutes. Robben Island Museum provided
logistical support and access to the tern colonies. | en_GB |
dc.identifier.citation | Vol. 8. Published online 29 May 2018. | en_GB |
dc.identifier.doi | 10.1038/s41598-018-26647-3 | |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10871/32723 | |
dc.language.iso | en | en_GB |
dc.publisher | Springer Nature | en_GB |
dc.rights | © The Author(s) 2018. Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. Te images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. | |
dc.title | A non-invasive approach to estimate the energetic requirements of an increasing seabird population in a perturbed marine ecosystem | en_GB |
dc.type | Article | en_GB |
dc.identifier.issn | 2045-2322 | |
dc.description | This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Springer Nature via the DOI in this record. | en_GB |
dc.identifier.journal | Scientific Reports | en_GB |