Secondly, we examined variations of these four variables throughout the depth selleckchem range experienced during transits. This enabled us to investigate

how penguins may anticipate the nature of the dive they are going to undertake in terms of transit rates. The study was carried out on Possession Island, Crozet Archipelago (46.4°S, 51.8°E) from December 2003 to March 2004. Birds used in the study were king penguins breeding at La Baie du Marin, a colony of approximately 16 000 pairs (Delord, Barbraud & Weimerskirch, 2004). The procedures received the approval of the ethics committee of the French Polar Institute (IPEV) and of the French Ministry of the Environment. Detailed description of the general surgical and handling procedure are given in Froget et al. (2004). Six breeding male king penguins were captured while brooding an egg and immediately subjected AP24534 clinical trial to isoflurane-anaesthesia, during which they were fitted with data loggers. SMAD data loggers (DEPE-IPHC, Strasbourg, France; 80 × 25 × 10 mm, 54 g) were externally attached to the lower-back feathers of each animal to diminish hydrodynamic drag (Bannasch, Wilson & Culik, 1994) and recorded depth every 2 s. SMAD were also programmed to measure tail-to-head (surge) and ventral-to-dorsal (heave) accelerations during two 1-h high-frequency sessions per day when penguins performed deep dives, and stored these measurements 32 times

per second. Cross-sectional area (CSA) of the external logger (2.5 cm2) represented less than 1% of the smallest bird’s CSA. Modified Mk7 data loggers (Wildlife Computers, Redmond, WA, USA) were also implanted subcutaneously for a study

of peripheral temperatures; these results have been described previously in Schmidt (2006). Together, the mass of both loggers (87 g) represented less than 0.8% of the smallest bird’s mass. The penguins undertook a foraging trip at sea 15–18 days later, after being relieved by their partners. After their return to the colony, the birds were recaptured and anaesthetized using the same procedure, and the loggers MCE were removed. All the loggers were recovered, of which five had recorded usable data. Data from these loggers were extracted, prepared and analysed using purpose-written computer programs in Matlab 6.0 (The MathsWorks, Natick, MA, USA). Dives >50 m, hereafter called ‘deep dives’, were used for analysis as they represent the majority of the foraging dives of king penguins (Charrassin et al., 1998). For each dive analysed, the following parameters were calculated: maximum dive depth (m), dive duration (s), subsequent surface interval duration until the next dive of any depth (s), subsequent time interval until the next deep dive (s), rank of the dive in a bout (i.e. sequence of successive dives), number of wiggles during the bottom phase or the entire dive. Wiggles are a particular, undulation-like pattern in the dive profile over time.