SEASONAL FORAGING RANGES AND TRAVELS AT SEA OF LITTLE PENGUINS EUDYPTULA-MINOR, DETERMINED BY RADIOTRACKING

The travels at sea, and by implication the foraging ranges, of Little Penguins Eudyptula minor from Phillip Island, Victoria, were examined within a period of 18 months in the first seasonal radiotelemetric study of penguins at sea. Two typical travelling patterns are evident: short-term, localised trips of a single day's duration; and long-term trips of several or many days duration and up to many hundreds of kilometres away from the burrow site. Each Little Penguin was capable of both kinds of trip; short-term trips were typical during the breeding season and long-term trips typical during the non-breeding season. Birds undertaking long-term trips generally had lower body masses than birds doing short-term trips. Port Phillip Bay was a favoured destination for long-term trips during winter. In other seasons, long-term trips elsewhere of up to 710 kilometres away from the burrow were recorded. On short-term trips, the mean maximum radius of travel was 7.9 km from the burrow and 95% of the recorded penguin-time was within a radius of 15 km of the burrow and 9 km of the coast. When prey was scarce Little Penguins appeared to range further on short-term trips. The mean net travelling speed on short-term trips was 1.5 km.h-1 (range 0-6.9 km.h-1, measured over 0.5 h intervals), and 0.7 km.h-1 on long-term trips (range 0.01-3.3 km.h-1 measured over 21-126 h), although one penguin travelled at least 113 km in 34.5 h. On long-term trips, in the open sea of Bass Strait, about 74% of the records of telemetered Little Penguins were within 20 km of the coast. For the benefit of wildlife managers, I predict three zones that should contain most of the activity of Little Penguins from southern Phillip Island, including birds from the internationally known 'Penguin Parade'.