Climate and human stressors on global penguin hotspots: Current assessments for future conservation.

As charismatic and iconic species, penguins can act as "ambassadors" or flagship species to promote the conservation of marine habitats in the Southern Hemisphere. Unfortunately, there is a lack of reliable, comprehensive, and systematic analysis aimed at compiling spatially explicit assessments of the multiple impacts that the world's 18 species of penguin are facing. We provide such an assessment by combining the available penguin occurrence information from Global Biodiversity Information Facility (>800,000 occurrences) with three main stressors: climate-driven environmental changes at sea, industrial fisheries, and human disturbances on land. Our analyses provide a quantitative assessment of how these impacts are unevenly distributed spatially within species' distribution ranges. Consequently, contrasting pressures are expected among species, and populations within species. The areas coinciding with the greatest impacts for penguins are the coast of Perú, the Patagonian Shelf, the Benguela upwelling region, and the Australian and New Zealand coasts. When weighting these potential stressors with species-specific vulnerabilities, Humboldt (Spheniscus humboldti), African (Spheniscus demersus), and Chinstrap penguin (Pygoscelis antarcticus) emerge as the species under the most pressure. Our approach explicitly differentiates between climate and human stressors, since the more achievable management of local anthropogenic stressors (e.g., fisheries and land-based threats) may provide a suitable means for facilitating cumulative impacts on penguins, especially where they may remain resilient to global processes such as climate change. Moreover, our study highlights some poorly represented species such as the Northern Rockhopper (Eudyptes moseleyi), Snares (Eudyptes robustus), and Erect-crested penguin (Eudyptes sclateri) that need internationally coordinated efforts for data acquisition and data sharing to understand their spatial distribution properly.

The breeding biology of erect-crested penguins, Eudyptes sclateri: Hormones, behavior, obligate brood reduction and conservation.

Erect-crested penguins are the least studied of all penguins. They breed on two isolated subantarctic island groups, the Antipodes and Bounty Islands. Sporadic nest counts indicate a dramatic decline in numbers of erect-crested penguins over the last 50 years. Here we present data from a study undertaken in 1998 on the breeding biology, behavior and hormones of erect-crested penguins. It represents, even today, by far the most detailed data available on this species. The penguins exhibited extreme reversed egg-size dimorphism, whereby the first-laid A-egg was much smaller than the second-laid B-egg. A-eggs were lost before (42.3%) or on (37.8%) the day the B-egg was laid, and none survived more than 7 days after that. The penguins were in a low state of reproductive readiness, as evidenced by low levels of copulation, fighting, and testosterone in males during the courtship/laying period when, curiously, plasma levels of testosterone were at least as high in females. The laying interval (5.4 days) is the longest recorded for any penguin species, and incubation was highly variable until clutch completion. Most nests (91.2%) contained no nesting material and eggs were laid directly onto the ground. A-eggs were lost mainly by rolling out of the nest. However, even when prevented from doing so by an experimental manipulation, A-eggs survived no longer than those in control nests. Testosterone levels in males increased after clutch completion, when they remained in attendance at the nest for up to 13 days, despite females assuming most of the incubation duties. The bills of males were significantly larger than those of females and probably help with guarding the nest. We discuss explanations for obligate brood reduction in crested penguins and the options for conservation in light of our census results, which indicate that this enigmatic penguin species could be in trouble.

A picture is not always worth a thousand words: The visual quality of photographs affects the effectiveness of interpretive signage for science communication.

Photographs are widely used to visualise science. However, the influence of visual quality of photographs on the effectiveness of science communication is often disregarded and seldom tested. This study examines how the visual quality of photographs affects science communication on interpretive signage within Xixi National Wetland Park, China. Results show that a high-quality photograph on the signage significantly increased the following affective and cognitive aspects of communication: (1) a visitor's intention to read the signage, (2) enjoyment of reading the interpretive information, (3) understanding and (4) recall of the information on the signage. This study offers empirical evidence for the benefits of using high-quality photographs to visualise science. To improve the effectiveness of science communication in interpretive products, we argue that the quality of the selected photographs should be considered seriously.

Visualising natural attractions within national parks: Preferences of tourists for photographs with different visual characteristics.

To explore what types of photographs are more helpful means to interpret natural attractions within national parks, this study focused on the relationship between the photographs with different visual characteristics and their perceived visual appeal. A photograph-based Q method was adopted. Results confirmed the visual quality of a photograph was the most important characteristic that determined its perceived attractiveness; those photographs with a high visual quality could successfully attract tourists' attention. The subject also significantly affected the preferences of observers, suggesting an interest-dependent pattern. Using photographs of birds as examples, the participants who were interested in birds were attracted by the photographs of birds rather than those of other subjects. This study provides a better understanding of the effectiveness of photographs for communication. Findings may help researchers, communicators and national park marketers better understand and select appropriate photographs for interpretation within national parks.

Transformation of the media landscape: Infotainment versus expository narrations for communicating science in online videos.

Society is undergoing a transformation in the way people consume media: increasingly we are using online on-demand videos, with the fastest growing segment of online videos about science being user-generated content that uses an infotainment style of delivery, in contrast to the traditional expository narrations of professionally generated content. In this study, we produced two otherwise identical videos about climate change to test the effects of an infotainment or expository narration. A total of 870 survey participants (419 English; 451 Spanish) were randomly presented with either an infotainment or expository version of the video. The expository narration was liked and believed more, and this held irrespective of language, age, sex or online viewing habits. However, the infotainment version was liked more by viewers without a university education and, further, viewers were better able to recall information from it, suggesting that user-generated content with infotainment-style narrations may actually be good for increasing public understanding of science.

Climate impacts on global hot spots of marine biodiversity.

Human activities drive environmental changes at scales that could potentially cause ecosystem collapses in the marine environment. We combined information on marine biodiversity with spatial assessments of the impacts of climate change to identify the key areas to prioritize for the conservation of global marine biodiversity. This process identified six marine regions of exceptional biodiversity based on global distributions of 1729 species of fish, 124 marine mammals, and 330 seabirds. Overall, these hot spots of marine biodiversity coincide with areas most severely affected by global warming. In particular, these marine biodiversity hot spots have undergone local to regional increasing water temperatures, slowing current circulation, and decreasing primary productivity. Furthermore, when we overlapped these hot spots with available industrial fishery data, albeit coarser than our estimates of climate impacts, they suggest a worrying coincidence whereby the world's richest areas for marine biodiversity are also those areas mostly affected by both climate change and industrial fishing. In light of these findings, we offer an adaptable framework for determining local to regional areas of special concern for the conservation of marine biodiversity. This has exposed the need for finer-scaled fishery data to assist in the management of global fisheries if the accumulative, but potentially preventable, effect of fishing on climate change impacts is to be minimized within areas prioritized for marine biodiversity conservation.

Chemical immobilization of adult female Weddell seals with tiletamine and zolazepam: effects of age, condition and stage of lactation.

BACKGROUND: Chemical immobilization of Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii) has previously been, for the most part, problematic and this has been mainly attributed to the type of immobilizing agent used. In addition to individual sensitivity, physiological status may play an important role. We investigated the use of the intravenous administration of a 1:1 mixture of tiletamine and zolazepam (Telazol) to immobilize adult females at different points during a physiologically demanding 5-6 week lactation period. We also compared performance between IV and IM injection of the same mixture. RESULTS: The tiletamine:zolazepam mixture administered intravenously was an effective method for immobilization with no fatalities or pronounced apnoeas in 106 procedures; however, there was a 25 % (one animal in four) mortality rate with intramuscular administration. Induction time was slightly longer for females at the end of lactation (54.9 +/- 2.3 seconds) than at post-parturition (48.2 +/- 2.9 seconds). In addition, the number of previous captures had a positive effect on induction time. There was no evidence for effects due to age, condition (total body lipid), stage of lactation or number of captures on recovery time. CONCLUSION: We suggest that intravenous administration of tiletamine and zolazepam is an effective and safe immobilizing agent for female Weddell seals. Although individual traits could not explain variation in recovery time, we suggest careful monitoring of recovery times during longitudinal studies (> 2 captures). We show that physiological pressures do not substantially affect response to chemical immobilization with this mixture; however, consideration must be taken for differences that may exist for immobilization of adult males and juveniles. Nevertheless, we recommend a mass-specific dose of 0.50-0.65 mg/kg for future procedures with adult female Weddell seals and a starting dose of 0.50 mg/kg for other age classes and other phocid seals.

Straight line foraging in yellow-eyed penguins: new insights into cascading fisheries effects and orientation capabilities of marine predators.

Free-ranging marine predators rarely search for prey along straight lines because dynamic ocean processes usually require complex search strategies. If linear movement patterns occur they are usually associated with travelling events or migratory behaviour. However, recent fine scale tracking of flying seabirds has revealed straight-line movements while birds followed fishing vessels. Unlike flying seabirds, penguins are not known to target and follow fishing vessels. Yet yellow-eyed penguins from New Zealand often exhibit directed movement patterns while searching for prey at the seafloor, a behaviour that seems to contradict common movement ecology theories. While deploying GPS dive loggers on yellow-eyed penguins from the Otago Peninsula we found that the birds frequently followed straight lines for several kilometres with little horizontal deviation. In several cases individuals swam up and down the same line, while some of the lines were followed by more than one individual. Using a remote operated vehicle (ROV) we found a highly visible furrow on the seafloor most likely caused by an otter board of a demersal fish trawl, which ran in a straight line exactly matching the trajectory of a recent line identified from penguin tracks. We noted high abundances of benthic scavengers associated with fisheries-related bottom disturbance. While our data demonstrate the acute way-finding capabilities of benthic foraging yellow-eyed penguins, they also highlight how hidden cascading effects of coastal fisheries may alter behaviour and potentially even population dynamics of marine predators, an often overlooked fact in the examination of fisheries' impacts.

Effects of artificial eggs on prolactin secretion, steroid levels, brood patch development, incubation onset and clutch size in the yellow-eyed penguin (Megadyptes antipodes).

Several studies have shown that the transition from egg laying to incubation behavior in birds is associated with changes in plasma levels of prolactin and steroid hormones. However, any effect of the tactile and visual input provided by eggs at initiating these hormonal changes has not been fully investigated in wild birds. A few days before yellow-eyed penguins, Megadyptes antipodes, started egg laying, we placed an artificial egg into their nests or under cages next to their nest. We then investigated the effect of the tactile and/or visual stimulus of such an artificial egg on prolactin secretion, steroid hormone levels (total androgen, estradiol and progesterone), brood patch development, incubation onset and clutch size in these penguins. Prolactin levels rose in females in response to having an artificial egg in the nest, while they declined considerably in males. Total androgen concentrations in males were less than 7% of those of control males and the levels prior to egg placement. Brood patch width increased in both males and females. Additionally, an egg in the nest caused yellow-eyed penguin pairs to attend and sit prone on their nest more frequently. Females that initiated egg laying 1 or 2 days after placement of the artificial egg in the nest, laid a full clutch of two eggs, while most other females that were exposed to an artificial egg in their nest, laid only a single egg. In contrast, the visual stimulus of an artificial egg alone (that was placed under a cage) did not influence hormone levels, brood patch development, incubation behavior or clutch size. The stimulation of an egg in the nest influences prolactin and total androgen levels in yellow-eyed penguins, particularly in males. While brood patch development and incubation behavior were initiated and egg laying was terminated in response to an artificial egg in the nest, the exact endocrine mechanisms underlying these physiological and behavioral changes remain poorly understood. We encourage further studies on other bird species taking an experimental approach to investigate the direct influence of hormones in initiating brood patch development and incubation behavior. Moreover, such experimental studies will widen our understanding of the endocrine mechanisms that regulate clutch size.

Effects of artificial social stimuli on the reproductive schedule and hormone levels of yellow-eyed penguins (Megadyptes antipodes).

The effects of social stimuli on avian reproductive behaviors such as breeding schedules and courtship behaviors are well known due to numerous field studies. However, studies that have simultaneously examined the effects of social stimuli on reproductive behavior and the mediating endocrine mechanisms have been largely restricted to captive populations, which may not be representative of free-living populations. This study, conducted over two breeding seasons, aimed to simultaneously measure the effects of experimentally increasing auditory stimuli on the breeding schedule and endocrinology (levels of total androgen, estradiol, progesterone and prolactin) on free-living yellow-eyed penguins (Megadyptes antipodes). The yellow-eyed penguin is the least colonial of all penguins, nesting far apart from each other under dense vegetation, and, therefore, is presumed to experience much lower levels of social stimuli than other penguins. Egg laying was significantly more synchronous and tended to be earlier when birds were exposed to playbacks of the calls of conspecifics in 1 year of the study. We also found that levels of total androgen and estradiol of males in 1 year, and prolactin in another year, were proportionally higher among treated birds compared control birds that received no artificial auditory stimuli. These results show that even among supposedly solitary nesters, social stimuli could still play a role in influencing reproductive behavior and physiology. For the first time in free-living seabirds, we have demonstrated that behavioral responses to increased social stimuli are associated with hormonal changes.

Influence of maternal mass and condition on energy transfer in Weddell seals.

1. Environmental variation influences food abundance and availability, which is reflected in the reproductive success of top predators. We examined maternal expenditure, offspring mass and condition for Weddell seals in 2 years when individuals exhibited marked differences in these traits. 2. For females weighing > or = 355 kg there was a positive relationship between maternal post-partum mass (MPPM) and lactation length, but below this there was no relationship, suggesting that heavier females were able to increase lactation length but lighter females were restricted to a minimum lactation period of 33 days. 3. Overall, females were heavier in 2002, but in 2003 shorter females were lighter than similar-sized females in 2002 suggesting that the effects of environmental variability on foraging success and condition are more pronounced in smaller individuals. 4. There was no relationship between MPPM and pup birth mass, indicating pre-partum investment did not differ between years. However, there was a positive relationship between MPPM and pup mass gain. Mass and energy transfer efficiency were 10.2 and 5.4% higher in 2002 than 2003, which suggests costs associated with a putatively poor-resource year were delayed until lactation. 5. Heavier females lost a higher proportion of mass during lactation in both years, so smaller females may not have been able to provide more to their offspring to wean a pup of similar size to larger females. 6. MPPM had only a small influence on total body lipid; therefore, regardless of mass, females had the same relative body composition. Females with male pups lost a higher percentage of lipid than those with female pups, but by the end of lactation female pups had 4.5% higher lipid content than males. 7. It appears that for Weddell seals the consequences of environmentally induced variation in food availability are manifested in differences in maternal mass and expenditure during lactation. These differences translate to changes in pup mass and condition at weaning with potential consequences for future survival and recruitment.

Hormonal correlates of parental behavior in yellow-eyed penguins (Megadyptes antipodes).

Penguins show varying degrees of brood reduction behavior, from obligate brood reducers to brood maximizers, and we hypothesize that this is associated with differences in prolactin secretion. To address this hypothesis, we determined the breeding season prolactin profile of the yellow-eyed penguin (Megadyptes antipodes) for comparison with those of other penguin species found in the literature. We also measured sex steroid plasma concentrations to better characterize the reproductive cycle of the species. Plasma concentrations of prolactin increased from early in the season, reaching a peak during late incubation, and remained elevated up to the guard period. This general pattern was similar to that of other penguins for which we have corresponding data. However, we found that throughout the laying period, prolactin titers in yellow-eyed penguins remained elevated while they fell to basal levels after the laying of the first egg in macaroni penguins, which corresponds to differences in incubation behavior during this time. We conclude, therefore, that differences in the brood reduction behavior in penguins, may be reflected in the pattern of PRL concentrations around the time of egg laying.