Measuring foraging activity in a deep-diving bird: comparing wiggles, oesophageal temperatures and beak-opening angles as proxies of feeding

Abstract

Quantification of prey consumption by marine predators is key to understanding the organisation of ecosystems. This especially concerns penguins, which are major consumers of southern food webs. As direct observation of their feeding activity is not possible, several indirect methods have been developed that take advantage of miniaturised data logging technology, most commonly: detection of (i) anomalies in diving profiles (wiggles), (ii) drops in oesophageal temperature and (iii) the opening of mouth parts (recorded with a Hall sensor). In the present study, we used these three techniques to compare their validity and obtain information about the feeding activity of two free-ranging king penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus). Crucially, and for the first time, two types of beak-opening events were identified. Type A was believed to correspond to failed prey-capture attempts and type B to successful attempts, because, in nearly all cases, only type B was followed by a drop in oesophageal temperature. The number of beak-opening events, oesophageal temperature drops and wiggles per dive were all correlated. However, for a given dive, the number of wiggles and oesophageal temperature drops were lower than the number of beak-opening events. Our results suggest that recording beak opening is a very accurate method for detecting prey ingestions by diving seabirds at a fine scale. However, these advantages are counterbalanced by the difficulty, and hence potential adverse effects, of instrumenting birds with the necessary sensor/magnet, which is in contrast to the less accurate but more practicable methods of measuring dive profiles or, to a lesser extent, oesophageal temperature.