As seabirds emperor penguins spent a large proportion of their lives at sea. For food they depend entirely on marine resources. Young penguins rarely return to their natal colonies after their first year. Satellite tracking will give us insights into where foraging areas may be that are important for these birds. This tracking work is part of a multi-species study funded by the Integrated Marine Observation System (IMOS).

Metadata record for data from ASAC Project 484 See the link below for public details on this project.

---- Public Summary from Project ---- Emperor penguins are the only birds that breed in the Antarctic winter. They feed mainly on fish and squid but also ingest krill. Changes in food availability due to oceanographic or climatic factors, or to the extent of sea ice (through the processes of global warming) will have a direct impact on the breeding success and population size of the penguins. By counting the number of males that incubate at mid-winter each year, we can monitor trends in their population size. Counts of fledglings in spring (November) tell us how successful the penguins bred.

The download file contains an excel spreadsheet which presents a summary of known Emperor Penguin colonies in the area of the Australian Antarctic Territory (AAT), and a file which details counts of male emperor penguins at the Taylor Glacier colony.

A description of the column headings used in the spreadsheet is below.

Colony: Colony name

lat, long: latitude and longitude of colony

discovered: date colony was discovered

current est pop (BP): Current estimated population size in breeding pairs - current as at date the colony was last seen

last seen: date the colony was last seen

counting method: method used to count the breeding pairs in the colony

comments: any applicable comments

reference: references relating to the colony

Taken from the 2009-2010 Progress Report: Public summary of the season progress: Population size of colonies fluctuates which is why long term monitoring studies are necessary to detect trends. At the emperor penguin colony at Taylor Glacier, monitored continuously since 1988, a slight downward trend is apparent but is not (yet?) statistically significant. The colony was visited three times: once in winter to obtain an estimate of the number of adults in the colony (roughly equivalent to the number of breeding pairs), and twice during the late chick rearing season to estimate breeding success. The count of adults in 2009 was the lowest on record. Reasons for this are still unknown.

Metadata record for data from ASAC Project 2954.
See the link below for public details on this project.

Public
The primary goal of this project is to determine the status and origin of diseases in Emperor Penguins at Auster Rookery near Mawson Station, Antarctica. We will investigate the origins of such disease and the role humans may have played. We will sample adults and chicks in order to isolate and describe the pathogens. A high percentage of Emperor Penguin chicks have antibodies to infectious bursal disease (IBDV). This study will investigate the role the adults play in transmitting IBDV to their chicks. The high prevalence of IBDV antibodies should help us to isolate the virus and discover its origin.

Project objectives:
Status of Disease in the Emperor Penguins of Auster Rookery

1) To determine the prevalence of disease in adult Emperor Penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) at Auster Rookery. Over 65% of Emperor Penguin chicks at Auster Rookery had serum antibodies to Infectious Bursal Disease Virus (IBDV) in December 1995 (Gardner et al. 1997). We have no information on the presence of the same antibodies on adult Emperor Penguins. We will focus on IBDV, but will also test for other common avian diseases.

2) To repeat the sampling of Emperor Penguin Chicks by Gardner et al. (1997) in order to compare the prevalence of IBDV in Emperor Penguin chicks in 2008 with 1995.

3) To determine the seasonal progression of IBDV antibody prevalence in both adults and chicks.

4) To determine the possible source(s) of viral infection in Emperor Penguin chicks. Because Gardner et al. (1997) had no information on adult Emperor Penguins we do not know how the chicks are exposed to IBDV. Gardner et al. (1997) suggested that poultry waste from the nearby Mawson Station may be a source of virus for the Emperor Penguin chicks. Penguins do not scavenge food, however, so the source of infection must be either from the environment, local predators/scavenger, or from parents feeding their young. By sampling both adults and chicks in different parts of the season, we will determine when antibodies first appear in the chicks. If they have antibodies in the early season, then scavengers/predators can not account for their exposure to IBDV.

5) To determine the source of the IBDV. We will attempt to isolate virus from Emperor Penguins in order to identify the strains responsible for the antibody reactions in Emperor Penguins. Using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), we will sequence genes from the virus which can be compared with known gene sequences from serotypes available from GenBank.

6) To monitor the chick mortality and conduct field necropsies of the Emperor Penguins at the Auster colony to determine whether IBDV or other diseases are a factor in reproductive success.

7) To contribute to a conservation strategy for Antarctic wildlife. By developing information on the importance and origins of disease in Emperor Penguins we can clarify the role of human visitors in the transmission of disease in Antarctic wildlife.

Progress against objectives:
Excellent progress has been made towards all the stated goals.

By spending the winter of 2008 at Mawson Station we had access to the emperor penguin colony at Auster. We successfully sampled 400 adults and 200 chicks as stated in the proposal. We now have the samples back in Australia and analyses are beginning. No sample analysis for disease could be undertaken while still in Antarctica.

The samples will 1) give us a determination of the prevalence of IBDV antibodies (also some other disease viruses) for both adults and chicks. 2) One of our sampling periods was a repeat of the sampling conducted by Gardner et al. so we can compare the prevalence of IBDV antibodies in chicks from 2 different years and relate that to the prevalence in adults. 4) We conducted our sampling at four different times during the winter so that we were able to sample chicks before any other species visited the colony, then sample them again 6 weeks after skuas and giant petrels were in the area. 5) In order to determine the source of IBDV we want to determine its RNA sequence. To that end, a full set of samples have been sent to Dr. Daral Jackwood at Ohio State University, a colleague and IBDV expert. He has just begun to analyse the samples to isolate and sequence the IBDV RNA. 6) We monitored chick mortality with visits to the colony on average once per week. We noted approximately 800 dead chicks and collected 120 of the chicks for field necropsies. They mostly died of starvation with a few exceptions. We found parasites in one dead chick. We also collected 9 carcasses of adult emperor penguins. Eight of the 9 were females who all died with complications of egg laying. 7) This goal will require the completion of all the analyses for us to make conservation recommendations.



This collection of files represents the data (including samples) collected for Project 2954 on Emperor Penguins.

This project was based on collecting samples from Emperor penguins throughout the winter season. There were 5 sets of samples.
1-Adults during courtship in May
2-Adults during hatch period in early August
3-Chicks at ca 5 weeks of age--soon after leaving the constant care of their parents
4- Adults in early summer (mid-November)
5-Chicks in early summer (late November)

Sampling at these intervals it was hoped we would be able to discriminate when or how the IBD antibodies appear in this population.


The files are:
1) Project 2954-Emperor IBD Antibodies PrevalenceSummary
This is a summary file of all the Virus Neutralization tests to determine the presence of antibodies to Infectious Bursal Disease (IBD) in the 5 groups of Emperor Penguins.

2) Project 2954-Emperor IBD summary graph
This is a graphical representation of the summary information for IBDV antibodies

3) Project 2954-Emperor Penguin Egg Samples-2008
This is a listing of the abandoned eggs collected over the winter. The eggs were weighed and measured. Many were sampled. We took 5ml of yolk and stored the samples in -80 C for future analysis.

4) Project 2954-Emperor Penguin sampling2008
This is the master file of sampling. Each penguin we handled was given a sample identification (but no permanent identifying marks). Each was weighed, measured, inspected for ticks and samples taken. This file identifies which samples were obtained. In addition it represents some analyses. The sexes of many of the penguins have been determined genetically with PCR. That is included in the file.

5) Project 2954-Emperor Penguin Serology NDV and AI 2008
This file is a listing of all the serum samples and the results of Hemagglutination Inhibition test (HAI) for antibodies to Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV) and an antibody ELISA test for Avian Influenza. No sign of any exposure to NDV or AI in Emperor penguins.

6) Project 2954-Disease Status Poster-Peng Conf 2010
This Powerpoint file is a single oversized page that presents much of the results that we have to date. It was presented at the 7th International Conference on the Biology of Penguins, in Boston USA, Sept 2010

7) Project 2954-Searching for IBDV in Emperors with RT-PCR
This MS WORD file is the summary of methods and results of testing tissue samples from chick carcasses found at the colony. Bursa and spleen tissue was preserved and sent to Daral Jackwood in Ohio USA. He conducted real time Reverse Transcriptase PCR on the samples to try to find the IBD virus. That is essential for the full identification of the source of antibodies in these penguins. Unfortunately all results were all negative. We hope with a new proposal to expand our testing to find this virus.

The spreadsheet lists positions of 27 emperor penguin colonies in East Antarctica (Umebosi to Yule Bay) based in Sentinel-2 images. Records are based on all images available throughout the breeding seasons 2018-2023. See https://browser.dataspace.copernicus.eu/
The period covered is 2018-2023.

As a species highly reliant on stable fast ice as a breeding platform, emperor penguins are increasingly challenged in their breeding attempts due to changes in fast ice conditions. We collated habitat information of 27 emperor penguin colonies in East Antarctica (43–167°E) from 2018 to 2023 using European Space Agency Sentinel-2 satellite images. Our objective was to examine the variability in habitat and ice conditions and associated repercussions for colony movements and breeding success. Variables, such as location, colony movement and inter-annual variability in these parameters, were used to assess the adaptability of emperor penguins when local conditions change markedly. The major challenge emperor penguins currently face throughout Antarctica is untimely loss of breeding habitat resulting in increased or complete breeding failure, as observed in 8 colonies at least once during the study. One small colony at the West Ice Shelf lost its breeding area and has not been seen since 2021. The inter-annual movement of some colonies demonstrates the species' adaptability and the need for ongoing monitoring of the global emperor penguin population using satellite imagery. We highlight caveats, such as availability of suitable satellite images and movement of colonies, that need to be accounted for to ensure sound interpretation of the monitoring findings. Ongoing Antarctic-wide monitoring is essential to quantify the impact of changing fast ice conditions on emperor penguins and also the cumulative impacts of other threats such as disease. The information presented is to provide background and empirical data for researchers, policy makers and managers.

The Antarctic Penguin Biogeography Project is an effort to collate all known information about the distribution and abundance of Antarctic penguins through time and to make such data available to the scientific and management community. The core data product involves a series of structured tables with information on known breeding sites and surveys conducted at those sites from the earliest days of Antarctic exploration through to the present. This database, which is continuously updated as new information becomes available, provides a unified and comprehensive repository of information on Antarctic penguin biogeography that contributes to a growing suite of applications of value to the Antarctic community. One such application is the Mapping Application for Antarctic Penguins and Projected Dynamics (MAPPPD; www.penguinmap.com) - a browser-based search and visualization tool designed primarily for policymakers and other non-specialists (Humphries et al., 2017), and ‘mapppdr’, an R package developed to assist the Antarctic science community. The Antarctic Penguin Biogeography Project has been funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Pew Fellowship for Marine Conservation, and the Institute for Advanced Computational Sciences at Stony Brook University. Antarctic Penguin Biogeography Project: Database of abundance and distribution for the Adélie, chinstrap, gentoo, emperor, macaroni, and king penguin south of 60 S is an occurrence and sampling event type dataset published by SCAR-AntBIOS. This dataset contains records of Pygoscelis adeliae, Pygoscelis antarctica, Pygoscelis papua, Eudyptes chrysolophus, Aptenodytes patagonicus, and Aptenodytes forsteri annual nest, adult, and/or chick counts conducted during field expeditions or collected using remote sensing imagery, that were subsequently gathered by the Antarctic Penguin Biogeography Project from published and unpublished sources, at all known Antarctic penguin breeding colonies south of 60 S from 1892-11-01 to 2022-02-12. The data is published as a standardized Darwin Core Archive and includes an event core and occurrence and eMoF extensions. This dataset is published by SCAR-AntOBIS under the license CC-BY 4.0. Please follow the guidelines from the SCAR Data Policy (SCAR, 2023) when using the data. If you have any questions regarding this dataset, please contact us via the contact information provided in the metadata or via data-biodiversity-aq@naturalsciences.be. Issues with dataset can be reported at https://github.com/biodiversity-aq/data-publication/ This dataset is part of the Antarctic Penguin Biogeography Project project funded by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Pew Fellowship for Marine Conservation, and the Institute for Advanced Computational Sciences at Stony Brook University.

Emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) and leopard seals (Hydrurga leptonyx) are iconic, top predators in Antarctica. Understanding their physiological ecology is essential to the assessment of their adaptability to the threats of climate change, pollution, and overfishing. The proposed research has multipronged objectives. Prior results suggest that Emperor penguins have flexible (vs. static) aerobic dive limits (ADL) that vary with the type of dive, and that the role of heart rate in utilization of oxygen stores also varies with dive type. A series of physiological measurements are proposed with backpack electrocardiogram recorders, that will allow further delineation of patterns and interrelationships among heart rate, dive behavior, and oxygen stores. Importantly, the research will be done on free diving emperors, and not individuals confined to a dive hole, thereby providing a more genuine measure of diving physiology and behavior. A separate objective is to examine foraging behavior of leopard seals, using a backpack digital camera and time depth recorder. Leopard seal behavior and prey intake is poorly quantified, but known to be significant. Accordingly the research is somewhat exploratory but will provide important baseline data. Finally, the P.I. proposes to continue long term overflight censuses of Emperor penguin colonies in the Ross Sea. Broader impacts include collaboration with National Geographic television, graduate student training, and development of sedation techniques for leopard seals.

The emperor penguin, Aptenodytes forsteri, is the premier avian diver and a top predator in the Antarctic ecosystem. The routine occurrence of 500-m diver during foraging trips to sea is both a physiological and behavior enigma. The objectives of this project address how and why emperors dive as deep and long as they do. The project examines four major topics in the diving biology of emperor penguins: pressure tolerance, oxygen store management, end-organ tolerance of diving hypoxemia/ischemia, and deep-dive foraging behavior. These subjects are relevant to the role of the emperor as a top predator in the Antarctic ecosystem, and to critical concepts in diving physiology, including decompression sickness, nitrogen narcosis, shallow water blackout, hypoxemic tolerance, and extension of aerobic dive time. The following hypotheses will be tested: 1) Prevention of nitrogen narcosis and decompression sickness in emperor penguins is achieved by inhibition of pulmonary gas exchange at depth. 2) Shallow water black out does not occur because of greater cerebral hypoxemic tolerance, and, in deep dives, because of resumption of pulmonary gas exchange during final ascent. 3) The rate of depletion of the blood oxygen store is a function of depth of dive and heart rate. 4) The aerobic dive limit (ADL) reflects the onset of lactate accumulation in locomotory muscle, not total depletion of all oxygen stores. 5) Elevation of tissue antioxidant capacity and free-radical scavenging enzyme activities protect against the routine ischemia/reperfusion which occur during diving. 6) During deep dives, the Antarctic silverfish, Pleuorogramma antarcticum, is the primary prey item for emperors. In addition to evaluation of the hypotheses below, the project has broader impacts in several areas such as partnership with foreign and national institutes and organizations (e.g., the National Institute of Polar Research of Japan, Centro de Investigacioines del Noroeste of Mexico, National Geographic, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, and Sea World). Participation in National Geographic television documentaries will provide unique educational opportunities for the general public; development of state-of-the-art technology (e.g., blood oxygen electrode recorders, blood samplers, and miniaturized digital cameras) will lay the groundwork for future research by this group and others; and the effects of the B15 iceberg on breeding success of emperor penguins will continue to be evaluated with population censuses during planned fieldwork at several Ross Sea emperor penguin colonies.

This project on emperor penguin populations will quantify penguin presence/absence, and colony size and trajectory, across the entire Antarctic continent using high-resolution satellite imagery. For a subset of the colonies, population estimates derived from high-resolution satellite images will be compared with those determined by aerial surveys - these results have been uploaded to MAPPPD (penguinmap.com) and are freely available for use. This validated information will be used to determine population estimates for all emperor penguin colonies through iterations of supervised classification and maximum likelihood calculations on the high-resolution imagery. The effect of spatial, geophysical, and environmental variables on population size and decadal-scale trends will be assessed using generalized linear models. This research will result in a first ever empirical result for emperor penguin population trends and habitat suitability, and will leverage currently-funded NSF infrastructure and hosting sites to publish results in near-real time to the public.

Understanding the boundaries of breeding populations is of great importance for conservation efforts and estimates of extinction risk for threatened species. However, determining these boundaries can be difficult when population structure is subtle. Emperor penguins are highly reliant on sea ice, and some populations may be in jeopardy as climate change alters sea-ice extent and quality. An understanding of emperor penguin population structure is therefore urgently needed. Two previous studies have differed in their conclusions, particularly whether the Ross Sea, a major stronghold for the species, is isolated or not. We assessed emperor penguin population structure using 4,596 genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), characterized in 110 individuals (10–16 per colony) from eight colonies around Antarctica. In contrast to a previous conclusion that emperor penguins are panmictic around the entire continent, we find that emperor penguins comprise at least four metapopulations, and that the Ross Sea is clearly a distinct metapopulation. Using larger sample sizes and a thorough assessment of the limitations of different analytical methods, we have shown that population structure within emperor penguins does exist and argue that its recognition is vital for the effective conservation of the species. We discuss the many difficulties that molecular ecologists and managers face in the detection and interpretation of subtle population structure using large SNP data sets, and argue that subtle structure should be taken into account when determining management strategies for threatened species, until accurate estimates of demographic connectivity among populations can be made.,Emperor penguin neutral SNP datasetEP_final.vcf,

This dataset includes an inventory of emperor penguins captured after their molt in February 2023. Observations recorded include capture date, instrumentation, body mass, flipper length, and samples collected.

This study took place from 12 November to 1 December 2015, at the emperor penguin colony at Rothschild Island (-69.5 S, -72.3 W) located on sea ice < 1 km from the eastern coastline of the island in Lazarev Bay. ARGOS telemetry devices were attached to adult emperor penguins en route to, or from, the colony. The last recorded positions were on 26 April 2016 when data collection was terminated; at this date six instruments were still transmitting. PTT devices were deployed as a joint operation between Philip Trathan (British Antarctic Survey), and Barbara Wienecke (Australian Antarctic Division). Catrin Thomas acted as the BAS Field General Assistant. Funding: This work was supported by the UKRI/ BAS ALI-Science project and to the Australian Antarctic Program. Philip Trathan was also supported by WWF (UK) under grant GB095701.

SOURCE -> LINK

Description

This dataset provides detailed records of penguin populations observed across various locations in Antarctica. It includes species-specific counts, geographic locations, observation accuracy, and metadata such as vantage points and counting methods. This data is crucial for ecological research, conservation efforts, and studying the impacts of climate change on penguin populations over time.

The dataset is comprehensive and spans multiple years, allowing for time-series analysis, geographic trend visualization, and species-level insights.

Data Dictionary

Metadata record for data from ASAC Project 419 See the link below for public details on this project. From the abstracts of some of the referenced papers: The population size and breeding success of Emperor Penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) at the Auster and Taylor Glacier colonies were estimated during the 1988 breeding season. At Auster a total of 10963 pairs produced about 6350 fledglings for a breeding success of 58%. At Taylor Glacier about 2900 pairs raised 1774 fledglings for a breeding success of 61%. Fledglings left Taylor Glacier over a period of 33 days at a mean mass of 10.56kg. The accuracy of the tritiated water (HTO) and sodium-22 (22Na) turnover methods as estimators of dietary water and sodium intake was evaluated in emperor penguins fed separate diets of squid and fish. Emperor penguins assimilated 76.2% and 81.8% of available energy in the squid and fish diets, respectively. Both isotopes had equilibrated with body water and exchangeable sodium pools by 2h after intramuscular injection. The tritium method yielded reliable results after blood isotope levels had declined by 35%. On average the tritium method underestimated water intake by 2.9%, with a range of -10.3% to +11.1%. The 22Na method underestimated Na intake on average by 15.9% with the errors among individuals ranging from -37.2% to -1.8%. Discrepancies with 22Na turnover were significantly greater with the squid diet than the fish diet. The results confirm the reliability of the tritium method as an estimator of food consumption by free-living emperor penguins (provided seawater and freshwater ingestion is known) and support the adoption of the 22Na method to derive an approximation of seawater of seawater intake by tritiated emperor penguin chicks and by tritiated adults on foraging trips of short duration. The diet composition of Emperor Penguin Aptenodytes forsteri chicks was examined at Auster and Taylor Glacier colonies, near Australia's Mawson station, Antarctica, between hatching in mid-winter and fledging in mid-summer by 'water-offloading' adults. Chicks at both colonies were fed a similar suite of prey species. Crustaceans occurred in 82% of stomach samples at Auster and 87% of stomachs at Taylor Glacier and were heavily digested; their contribution to food mass could not be quantified. Fish, primarily bentho-pelagic species, accounted for 52% by number and 55% by mass of chick diet at Auster, and squid formed the remainder. At Taylor Glacier the corresponding values were 27% by number and 31% by mass of fish and 73% by number and 69% by mass of squid. of the 33 species or taxa identified, the fish Trematous eulepidotus and the squid Psychroteuthis glacialis and Alluroteuthis antarcticus accounted for 64% and 74% of the diets by mass at Auster and Taylor Glacier, res pectively. The sizes of fish varied temporally but not in a linear manner from winter to summer. Adult penguins captured fish ranging in length from 60 mm (Pleuragramma antarcticum) to 250 mm (T. eulepidotus) and squid (P. glacialis) from 19 to 280 mm in mantle length. The length-frequency distribution of P. glacialis showed seasonal variation, with the size of squid increasing from winter to summer. The energy density of chick diet mix increased significantly prior to 'fledging'.

The emperor penguin, an iconic species threatened by projected sea-ice loss in Antarctica, has long been considered to forage at the fast ice edge, presumably relying on large/yearly-persistent polynyas as their main foraging habitat during the breeding season. Using newly developed fine-scale sea-icescape data and historical penguin tracking data, this study for the first time suggests the importance of less-recognized small openings, including cracks, flaw leads and ephemeral short-term polynyas, as foraging habitats for emperor penguins. The tracking data retrieved from 47 emperor penguins in two different colonies in East Antarctica suggest that those penguins spent 23% of their time in ephemeral polynyas and did not use the large/yearly-persistent, well-studied polynyas, even they occur much more regularly with predictable locations. These findings challenge our previous understanding of emperor penguin breeding habitats, highlighting the need for incorporating fine-scale seascape features when assessing the population persistence in a rapidly changing polar environment.

Creching emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) chickswere exposed to two overflights by an S-76 twin engine helicopter at 1000 m: a current operational guideline for helicopter activity in Antarctica. The flights were conducted on the same day but under different wind conditions: a morning flight with a 10 kt (18 km.hr-1) katabatic blowing perpendicular to the direction of helicopter travel and an afternoon flight with virtually no wind. Background noise levels recorded in the morning, before the helicopter flight, were significantly higher than in the afternoon, but these differences were not detectable when the helicopter was overhead. There were also no significant differences in the way chicks responded to helicopters between the morning and afternoon flight. All chicks became more vigilant when the helicopter approached and 69% either walked or ran, generally moving less than 10 m toward other chicks (i.e. not scattering). Most chicks (83%) displayed flipper-flapping, probably indicating nervous apprehension. This behaviour was seldom displayed in the absence of disturbance. Although all effects were relatively transitory, results support the introduction of more conservative guidelines for helicopter operations around breeding localities of this species.

The fields in this dataset are:

Time Action Date Lying Standing Walking Preening Flapping

MEE_SPOT_Fig5_ColonyLocomotionMeteorological data and time lapse image recordings (04/02/2013 to 04/07/2013) used to evaluate the influence of wind speed and wind direction on the position of the Atka Bay emperor penguin colonyMEE_SPOT_Fig6_SingleLocomotionVideo (4008x2672, 5 fps, 60s) recorded on 07/22/2013 at 11:40:47 UTC used to evaluate the movement characteristics of single emperor penguins at the huddle boundariesMEE_SPOT_Fig4_AbundanceHigh resolution panoramic images for 04/01/2014 to 04/21/2014 used to evaluate emperor penguin numbers and arrival pattern

The emperor penguin dives deeper and longer, fasts longer, and endures the harshest weather conditions of all diving birds. It spends about four and half months per annum deep in Antarctic pack ice away from shore and stations, and thus is largely unavailable for study. This time includes preparation for the molt, and travel to the colony to breed, a time period in which great swings in body weight occur. This study will fill an important gap in what we know about the biology of the annual cycle of the emperor by examining the molt-post molt period. The P.I. proposes to traverse the Amundsen and Bellingshausen seas on the Oden, to locate and tag emperor penguins during the molt season. The objectives are to (1) Place satellite tags on 20 adult post molt birds to determine their route, rate of travel, and diving behavior as they return back to their breeding colonies, (2) Obtain an index of body condition, (3) Collect guano to determine the type of food consumed by emperor penguins in the region, (4) Conduct shipboard surveys to sight and plot the location and abundance of adult and juvenile birds on the ship's track. The PI hypothesizes that bird dives will be shallow during the initial post-molt phase, and that food will consist primarily of krill; that there will be differential dispersal of birds from the Ross Sea vs. Marie Byrd Land, with Ross Sea birds traveling farther; and that the greatest adult mortality occurs during the molt and early post molt period. Broader impacts include training of a post doc, a graduate student, and an aquarium volunteer. The P.I. also will present findings through a website, through public lectures, and in collaboration with the Birch aquarium.

As seabirds emperor penguins spent a large proportion of their lives at sea. For food they depend entirely on marine resources. Young penguins rarely return to their natal colonies after their first year. Satellite tracking will give us insights into where foraging areas may be that are important for these birds. This tracking work is part of a multi-species study funded by the Integrated Marine Observation System (IMOS).

These data are from penguins from the Amanda Bay area, and for the 2011-2012 season.

• Consensus SNP calls dataset from RADseq data for the Emperor penguin.Input files for the analyses described in Cristofari et al. 2016, "Full circumpolar migration ensures evolutionary unity in the Emperor penguin":- Extended Bayesian Skyline Plot input files,- fastsimcoal2 analysis input files,- ngsAdmix genotype likelihood input file,- generic Structure / fastStructure input file,- Migrate-n analysis input files,

There are three emperor penguin breeding colonies located along the coast of Northern Victoria Land, Ross Sea. KOPRI conducted a population monitoring survey on three of emperor penguin colonies, Cape Washington (ASPA No. 173), Coulman Island and Cape Roget. The colony of Cape Roget was surveyed by researchers for the first time in November 2021. The emperor penguin chick counting on Cape Washington was conducted seven times during austral summer seasons from 2014 to 2021. And we surveyed colony of Coulman Island, one of the largest colonies in Antarctica, four times from 2017 to 2021. We visited on the ground and counted chicks by researchers in November 2014 and December 2015, while we used aerial photograph to determine the colony size of emperor penguins from 2016. We could not visit the colonies of Cape Washington and Coulman Island in 2020, because field activities were cancelled due to the pandemic situation of covid-19 worldwide.