Penguin Preferences
Tracking Adelie Penguins with Radio Telemetry

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Hook
70,000 Adelie penguins arrive at Cape Bird on Ross Island Antarctica in November of each year. In 3 short months, they must attract a mate, build a nest, incubate their eggs, feed their chicks and raise them. All this must be completed by early February before the return of the cruel Antarctic winter. After incubating the eggs for about 22 days, the parents struggle to keep the growing chicks fed. To obtain food, parent penguins take turns going to sea on feeding trips for 1 to 5 days at a time. Your job is to determine where it is they go and why.

Radio telemetry is a technique we used to track penguins over large distances while feeding in the Ross Sea. When penguins are tracked using this method, a small radio transmitter is carefully taped to the feathers on the lower back of the bird. This transmitter is about 4 cm long and has an antenna that extends another 15 cm to the penguin?s tail. Each transmitter is set to its own special frequency so that by tuning our receiver to that frequency, we can locate an individual bird. This is much like tuning into your favorite radio station. To obtain the three data points needed for triangulation, our team had people at three separate stations, listening for each penguin at the same time. In this activity, you will use the raw telemetry data obtained by the research team, to determine the location of Adelie penguin feeding areas.

Materials
magnetic compass or protractor
ruler
calculator satellite images - found at: ../../activity/wille/penguinpreferences_data.html

Procedure
Adelie Penguin Radio Telemetry data set for years 1995, 1999, 2000

Procedure: 1. Mark a North/South line that is parallel to the nearest longitude line marked on the satellite image. This line will be used to align the protractor correctly when plotting each data point.

2. Determine the direction of travel for the first data point from Cape Royds. If using a compass, orient so that North (0 degrees) is pointed to the top of the page and South (180 degrees) corresponds to the bottom of page. If using a protractor, you will have to determine the best way to convert the data values given, as the protractor is only marked from 0 to 180 degrees and the data points are greater than this. To take care of this, turn the protractor 180 degrees and add 180 to the reading on the protractor. Remember that compass headings are set so that due North is equal to 0, West is 90, South 180, and East 270 degrees.

3. Mark the line on the satellite image in pencil and label each line with the compass heading it represents. This will prevent confusion when all the compass bearing lines are plotted.

4. Mark the point where these compass bearing lines converge with a symbol such as an asterik *. Use a different symbol for the birds from different nest colonies.

1999 Data
Penguin #
1	312	215	218		Bird
2	300	256	259		Bird
3	305	262	265		Bird
4	352	220	243		Bird
5	353	230	255		Bird
6	353	231	256		Bird
7	345	258	280		Bird
8	352	256	260		Royds
9	330	210	214		Royds
10	288	226	232		Royds
2000 Data
Penguin #
11	328	259	276		Bird
12	300	240	248		Bird
13	335	228	247		Bird
14	320	270	278		Bird
15	321	262	275		Bird
16	312	278	285		Bird
17	232	210	212		Royds
18	218	200	202		Royds
19	253	222	226		Royds
20	282	230	239		Royds
1995 Data
Penguin #
21	344	248	277		Bird
22	328	246	264		Bird
23	350	282	304		Bird
24	350	234	292		Bird
25	352	232	293		Bird
26	322	294	300		Royds
27	338	316	320		Royds
28	330	304	308		Royds

Discussions Questions/Extensions ......
1. Do the Adelie penguins appear to feed in open water, pack ice, ice shelf or fast ice

2. Which of the years has the greatest sea ice coverage ? Which has the least ?

3. What is the average percentage of birds found on each of the ice types during the 3 year period. Show calculation

Pack ice_____________
Fast ice_____________
Open ocean___________
Ice Shelf____________
Glacier______________

4. Consider the food web of the Antarctic marine ecosystem. Explain how the presence of ice is related to the food web. Why do the penguins depend on the ice ?

5. Penguin chicks can only survive a limited amount of time without food in cold temperatures. The adults may take anywhere from a day to several days before returning from a feeding trip. What would happen if the ice location and/or prey abundance requires a five to seven day trip ? explain.

6. Compare the distance which penguins must walk over the ice to get to open water in the photos from 2000 with those from 1995. What is the difference ? Why might this be important to the penguins?