Abstract:
This dataset comprises Global Positioning System (GPS) data for chinstrap penguins, Pygoscelid antarcticus, at the South Orkney Islands (Signy, Monroe, Powell and Laurie island) from 2011 to 2019. Chinstrap penguins were fitted with GPS tags between December to January (austral summer) to better understand their movement for seabird conservation and management. The data includes GPS positions at specified intervals for deployed tags, with additional metadata on the morphology of the birds, their deployment, and breeding.
Work was carried out by personnel at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and was funded by Natural Environment Research Council (UK) core funding to BAS.
This is an updated version of a previous dataset. There have been additional tracks included with further quality control carried out.
Keywords:
Chinstrap penguin, GPS, Global Positioning System, Pygoscelid antarcticus, Signy Island, Tracking
Trathan, P.N., Lowther, A., Manco, F., Ratcliffe, N., & Manthorpe, S.J. (2025). GPS tracks of chinstrap penguins at the South Orkney Islands, 2011-2019 [Version 2.0] (Version 2.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/8f8ccba5-01af-4b00-8a3b-c3c85b24bf92
| Access Constraints: | There are no access constraints on this dataset. |
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| Use Constraints: | This data is governed by the NERC data policy http://www.nerc.ac.uk/research/sites/data/policy/ and supplied under Open Government Licence v.3 http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/. |
| Creation Date: | 2025-03-03 |
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| Dataset Progress: | Planned |
| Dataset Language: | English |
| ISO Topic Categories: |
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| Parameters: |
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| Personnel: | |
| Name | UK Polar Data Centre |
| Role(s) | Metadata Author |
| Organisation | British Antarctic Survey |
| Name | Dr Philip N Trathan |
| Role(s) | Investigator |
| Organisation | British Antarctic Survey |
| Name | Dr Andrew Lowther |
| Role(s) | Investigator |
| Organisation | Norwegian Polar Institute |
| Name | Fabrizio Manco |
| Role(s) | Investigator |
| Organisation | Anglia Ruskin University |
| Name | Dr Norman Ratcliffe |
| Role(s) | Investigator, Technical Contact |
| Organisation | British Antarctic Survey |
| Name | Ms Sarah J Manthorpe |
| Role(s) | Investigator |
| Organisation | British Antarctic Survey |
| Parent Dataset: | N/A |
| Reference: | Dias, M.P., Carneiro, A.P.B., Warwick-Evans, V., Harris, C., Lorenz, K., Lascelles, B., Clewlow, H.L., Dunn, M.J., Hinke, J.T., Kim, J.H., Kokubun, N., Manco, F., Ratcliffe, N., Santos, M., Takahashi, A., Trivelpiece, W., Trathan, P.N. (2018) Identification of marine Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas for penguins around the South Shetland Islands and South Orkney Islands. Ecology and Evolution 8(21): 10520-10529. doi: 10.1002/ece3.4519. Dias M.P., V. Warwick-Evans, A.P.B. Carneiro, C. Harris, B.G. Lascelles, H.L. Clewlow, F. Manco, N. Ratcliffe, P.N. Trathan (2018) Using habitat models to identify marine important bird and biodiversity areas for Chinstrap Penguins Pygoscelis antarcticus in the South Orkney Islands. Polar Biology 42(1): 17-25. doi: doi.org/10.1007/s00300-018-2404-4. Jennifer J. Freer, Victoria Warwick-Evans, Georg Skaret, Bjørn A. Krafft, Sophie Fielding, Philip N. Trathan (2025) A new dynamic distribution model for Antarctic krill reveals interactions with their environment, predators, and the commercial fishery in the south Scotia Sea region. Limnology and Oceanography. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/lno.12809. Manco, F., Lang, S., Trathan, P.N. (2022) Predicting foraging dive outcomes in chinstrap penguins (Pygoscelis antarcticus) using biologging and animal-borne cameras. Behavioral Ecology, arac066. doi: 10.1093/beheco/arac066. Lowther, A.D., Trathan, P., Tarroux, A., Lydersen, C., Kovacs, K.M. (2018) The relationship between coastal weather and foraging behaviour of chinstrap penguins, Pygoscelis antarctica. ICES Journal of Marine Science 75(6): 1940-1948. doi: 10.1093/icesjms/fsy061. Phillips, J.A., Fayet, A.L., Guilford, T., Manco, F., Warwick-Evans, V., Trathan, P. (2023) Foraging conditions for breeding penguins improve with distance from colony and progression of the breeding season at the South Orkney Islands. Movement Ecology 10(1): 32. doi: 10.1186/s40462-022-00330-9. Phillips, J.A., Fayet, A.L., Guilford, T., Manco, F., Warwick-Evans, V., Trathan, P. (2021) Foraging conditions for breeding penguins improve with distance from colony and progression of the breeding season at the South Orkney Islands. Movement Ecology 9, 1-22. doi: 10.1186/s40462-021-00261-x. Trathan, P.N., Warwick-Evans, V., Hinke, J.T., Young, E.F., Murphy, E.J., Carneiro, A.P.B., Dias, M.P., Kovacs, K.M., Lowther, A.D., Godo, O.R., Kokubun, N., Kim, J.H., Takahashi, A., Santos, M. (2018) Managing fishery development in sensitive ecosystems: identifying penguin habitat use to direct management in Antarctica. Ecosphere 9(8): e02392. doi: 10.1002/ecs2.2392. Warwick-Evans, V., Ratcliffe, N., Lowther, A.D., Manco, F., Ireland, L., Clewlow, H.L., Trathan, P.N. (2018) Using habitat models for chinstrap penguins Pygoscelis antarctica to advise krill fisheries management during the penguin breeding season. Diversity and Distributions 24(12): 1756-1771. doi: 10.1111/ddi.12817. |
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| Quality: | Values which were null or reported as 0.00 in the latitude and longitude columns were removed. This is a version 2 of a previous dataset, that included GPS and TDR tags together. Errors found in the metadata and data were rectified in this version, which also includes a broader spatial and temporal coverage of tracks. Where the sex of the bird was not known, 'U' was used in the metadata file. |
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| Lineage: | Global Positioning system (GPS) devices were fitted to 313 chinstrap penguins at the South Orkney Islands (listed below) over four seasons between December and January, 2011 to 2019. Breeding penguins were caught during incubation, brood and creche periods and fitted with GPS loggers (Sirtrack Fastloc) using Tessa tape and a two-part quick-setting glue. Handling time did not exceed 10 minutes for deployment and 5 minutes for retrieval. Loggers were always less than 1 percent of the bird's body mass. Devices were retrieved on average after 4.7 days. GPS loggers recorded locations every 4 minutes, with longer intervals if the GPS could not connect to satellites (when the bird was underwater). GPS data includes a timestamp along with the latitude and longitude in decimal degrees. The number of deployed tags per year are as follows: Signy Island: 2011 -2012: 11 2013-2014: 25 2015-2016: 28 2018-2019: 59 Laurie Island: 2011-2012: 60 Monroe Island: 2015-2016: 65 Powell Island: 2013-2014: 68 |
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| Temporal Coverage: | |
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| Start Date | 2011-12-29 |
| End Date | 2019-01-24 |
| Spatial Coverage: | |
| Latitude | |
| Southernmost | -60.73388 |
| Northernmost | -56.48524 |
| Longitude | |
| Westernmost | -46.06731 |
| Easternmost | -33.12241 |
| Altitude | |
| Min Altitude | N/A |
| Max Altitude | N/A |
| Depth | |
| Min Depth | N/A |
| Max Depth | N/A |
| Location: | |
| Location | Antarctica |
| Detailed Location | Signy Island, South Orkney Islands |
| Location | Antarctica |
| Detailed Location | Monroe Island, South Orkney Islands |
| Location | Antarctica |
| Detailed Location | Powell Island, South Orkney Islands |
| Location | Antarctica |
| Detailed Location | Laurie Island, South Orkney Islands |
| Sensor(s): |
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| Data Collection: | Sirtrack Fastloc 33 F2G133A (38.4 g in air, 65 x 28 x 22 mm) with 40 mm whip antenna Sirtrack Fastloc 33 F3G133A (31.0 g in air, 63 x 24 x 22 mm) with 40 mm whip antenna |
| Data Storage: | Deployment IDs given as the following: Two code abbreviation for the island + one letter code for the species + deployment number Two-code abbreviation: Signy Island: SI One letter code for species: Chinstrap penguin: C Deployment IDs were used as file names. File names include '_GPS' abbreviation. Deployment IDs match with related TDR dataset. Files that are linked have the same filename except for the last abbreviation: '_GPS' or '_TDR'. Deployment ID structure also matches related datasets on GPS and TDR tracks for other pygoscelids tracked from the South Orkney islands. 313x data .csv (1 per deployment) 1x metadata .csv 1x. txt file with header metadata including citation and DOI |
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