Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente (INIBIOMA), CONICET, Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Quintral 1250, 8400 Bariloche, Argentina
Programa Ecología Pesquera, Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo Pesquero (INIDEP), CONICET, Paseo Victoria Ocampo No. 1, B760 HSA Mar del Plata, Argentina
Argentine Sea marine fronts migration non-breeding season penguins
How to Cite
Barrionuevo, Melina, Marcelo Acha, and Esteban Frere. 2026. “Key Marine Areas During Penguin Migration in the Argentine Sea: Contributions to Their Conservation Knowledge”. El Hornero 41 (1). https://doi.org/10.56178/eh.v41i1.1537.
During migration, seabirds concentrate in key oceanic areas associated with high productivity. Magellanic Penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) and Western Rockhopper Penguins (Eudyptes chrysocome chrysocome) spend most of the non-breeding season migrating in the Argentine Sea. Here, we compared the distances and phenology of migratory trips between both species breeding in nearby colonies (< 20 km apart in Puerto Deseado, Santa Cruz). In addition, we evaluated the association of these colonies and other Magellanic Penguin colonies with marine fronts during migration. Between 2017 and 2024, we analyzed 186 geolocators recovered from adult individuals of both species. Western Rockhopper Penguins traveled greater total distances and moved farther offshore than Magellanic Penguins, but the maximum distances reached were similar. Magellanic Penguins departed from and returned to the colony earlier than Western Rockhopper Penguins, exhibiting interspecific reproductive allochrony. The most frequently used front by both species was the El Rincón Front. In the case of Magellanic Penguins, the Río de la Plata Front appears to act as the eastern limit of migration for individuals from northern colonies (60% of the population evaluated), whereas the Patagonian Current Front is used by individuals from southern colonies (16%). Under thermal anomalies, Western Rockhopper Penguins also used the shelf-break front. These findings reveal spatial and temporal segregation in habitat use by these species and highlight the importance of key areas for their conservation, such as the waters of El Rincón and the Río de la Plata.
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