Little penguins can have effective breeding periods without their favorite food—anchovies—but just if alternative victim is available.
For a research study released in Functional Ecology, scientists examined Melbourne's St Kilda little penguin nest over 2 years.
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They detailed how changes to victim wealth or food resources affected reproductive success, monitoring the penguins' nesting and feeding habits throughout the 2010 and 2011 breeding period.
Previous information had revealed that the nest fed mainly on anchovy, which accounted for up to 78 percent of their diet in between years 2004 and 2008.
The scientists anticipated that changes in wealth would certainly have an effect on the reproductive success of the colony—but they were surprised to find the little penguins were durable to changing problems just if alternative victim such as sardines was available.
Nicole Kowalczyk of Monash University's Institution of Organic Sciences says breeding failing in seabirds has been associated with declines in victim wealth, and the quality and variety of prey—but determining which aspect of diet was accountable was challenging.
"The St Kilda little penguin nest has a brief foraging range and displays narrow nutritional variety, so this gave us the unique ability to determine how changes in food provide influence their recreation," says Kowalczyk.
"We found that a sharp decrease of anchovy in 2010 had a unfavorable effect on little penguin recreation. However, in 2011, despite the fairly reduced anchovy wealth, their breeding success was incredibly high.
"Our company believe the decrease of anchovy itself wasn't the just cause for reduced breeding success in 2010 but in mix with the scarcity of alternative victim. Our outcomes show that little penguins are durable to changes in their preferred victim but their ability to adjust to these changes is limited by the accessibility of alternative victim species."
