Adelie penguin breeding success for Bechervaise Island, Mawson

Brief description

Adelie penguin breeding success records for Bechervaise Island, Mawson since 1990-91. Data include counts of occupied nests and chick counts when either 2/3 of the nests have creched or when all nests have creched. Breeding success values are calculated as the number of chicks per occupied nest.

Breeding Success = the number of chicks raised to fledging per nest with eggs

Breeding success is calculated from four different whole island counts:
1) the number of incubating nests (i.e. the number of nest with eggs) - 'incubating nest count'

2) the number of brooding nests (i.e. the number of nests brooding chicks) - 'brooding chick count'

3) the number of chicks present when 2/3 of the nests have creched their chicks - '2/3-creche count'

4) the number of chicks present when all the nests have creche their chicks - 'fully-creche count'

Each colony on the island is manually counted by field observers, using 'counters', three times each. Counts within 10% of each other are used to average the number of nests or chicks for each colony and then in later calculations to determine breeding success.

Incubating nest counts are conducted on or about 2nd December; Brooding chick counts are conducted on or about the 7th January; 2/3-creche counts on or about the 19th January; and Fully-creche chick counts on or about 26th January.

Whole island 2/3-creche and fully-creche chick count dates are determined from calculating when 2/3 and all study nests in the census area (study colonies) have creche their chicks.

This work was completed as part of ASAC Project 2205, Adelie penguin research and monitoring in support of the CCAMLR Ecosystem Monitoring Project.

The fields in this dataset are:

Year
Breeding success
Occupied nests

Lineage

Progress Code: completed

Statement: Data entered into Excel spreadsheets from field workbooks and then imported into customised database. Values based on minimum of two counts for each of the occupied nest counts and chick counts.