Abstract:
This dataset captures foraging locations from high resolution GPS tracking and reproductive success of 346 wandering albatrosses (Diomedea exulans) breeding on Possession Island, Crozet Islands archipelago, Southern Indian Ocean from 2010 to 2020. GPS locations are available at fix frequencies from 1 to 15 minutes. Breeding success data are accompanied by personality ('boldness') values and sex of each individual. GPS data were used to study the effect of climate variation, and its interaction with personality, on behaviour and reproductive success.
This research was supported by NERC standard grant NE/V015036/1.
Keywords:
Breeding success, Diomedea exulans, GPS, foraging, tracking
Patrick, S., Gillies, N., Weimerskirch, H., Barbraud, C., & Delord, K. (2025). GPS tracking data and reproductive success for wandering albatrosses (Diomedea exulans) breeding in the Crozet Islands archipelago, Southern Indian Ocean, from 2010 to 2020 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/ecfc095f-ebde-435e-b900-f01721c423ed
| Access Constraints: | None. |
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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: | 2025-07-04 |
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| Dataset Progress: | Complete |
| 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 | Prof Samantha C Patrick |
| Role(s) | Investigator |
| Organisation | University of Liverpool |
| Name | Dr Natasha Gillies |
| Role(s) | Investigator |
| Organisation | University of Liverpool |
| Name | Dr Henri Weimerskirch |
| Role(s) | Investigator |
| Organisation | Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chize |
| Name | Dr Christophe Barbraud |
| Role(s) | Investigator |
| Organisation | Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chize |
| Name | Karine Delord |
| Role(s) | Investigator |
| Organisation | Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chize |
| Parent Dataset: | N/A |
| Reference: | ASSOCIATED MANUSCRIPT: Gillies, N., Thorley, J., Weimerskirch, H., Jenouvrier, S., Barbraud, C., Delord, K. and Patrick, S.C. 2024. "Plastic Behaviour Buffers Climate Variability in the Wandering Albatross". Ecol Evol, 14: e70631. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.70631 SCRIPTS AND PROCESSED DATASETS ASSOCIATED WITH ABOVE MANUSCRIPT: Natasha Gillies. 2024. tash-g/WAAL_climate: V1.0 Post-publication release (v1.0-post-publication). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14290546 REFERENCE MATERIALS: Fridolfsson, A.-K., & Ellegren, H. 1999. "A Simple and Universal Method for Molecular Sexing of Non-Ratite Birds." Journal of Avian Biology, 30(1), 116. https://doi.org/10.2307/3677252 Gillies, N., H. Weimerskirch, J. Thorley, et al. 2023. "Boldness Predicts Plasticity in Flight Responses to Winds." Journal of Animal Ecology 92: 1730-1742. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.13968 Hadfield, J. D. 2010. MCMC Methods for Multi-Response Generalized Linear Mixed Models: The MCMCglmm R Package. Journal of Statistical Software, 33(2), 1-22. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v033.i02 Patrick, S. C., A. Charmantier, and H. Weimerskirch. 2013. "Differences in Boldness Are Repeatable and Heritable in a Long-Lived Marine Predator." Ecology and Evolution 3, no. 13: 4291-4299. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.748 Weimerskirch, H., D. P. Filippi, J. Collet, S. M. Waugh, and S. C. Patrick. 2018. "Use of Radar Detectors to Track Attendance of Albatrosses at Fishing Vessels." Conservation Biology 32, no. 1: 240-245. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.12965 Weimerskirch, H., J. Collet, A. Corbeau, et al. 2020. "Ocean Sentinel Albatrosses Locate Illegal Vessels and Provide the First Estimate of the Extent of Nondeclared Fishing." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 117, no. 6: 3006-3014. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1915499117 |
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| Quality: | GPS data were filtered using an iterative forwards/backwards speed filter to remove points with flight speeds of > 80km h-1. Where data were not available, the value 'NA' has been used. |
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| Lineage: | Global position system (GPS) devices were attached dorsally using marine Tesa tape to 346 wandering albatrosses (175 males, 171 females; full details in Weimerskirch et al. 2018; Weimerskirch et al. 2020). Birds were captured at the nest during the incubation period (January to April) of 2010 to 2020 from a colony on Possession Island (Crozet Islands archipelago, Southern Indian Ocean, 46°24'S, 51°46'E). The temporal coverage of the resulting GPS data for each year 2010-2020 can be viewed in the 'Temporal Coverage' section below. The breeding success of each pair in the study colony was recorded as part of long-term monitoring and was defined as a binary variable, where 'SUCCESS' indicates that the chick survived to fledging, and 'FAILURE' indicates failure at the egg or chick stage. One value was recorded per pair per year for the years 1965-2020. Boldness was measured as the reaction to the approach of a human observer (see Patrick, Charmantier, and Weimerskirch 2013 for full details). The observer noted each bird's behaviours as they approached from a 5-m distance, stopping short of reaching the bird itself. Behaviours were recorded using a 5-point ordinal scale ranging from 0 to 4, where 0 = no response; 1 = bird lifts head; 2 = bird rises onto tarsi; 3 = bird vocalises; 4 = bird stands up. Using this scale, higher scores indicate bolder birds. Using these measurements, boldness was estimated by extracting individual-level best linear unbiased predictors (BLUPs) from an ordinal generalised linear mixed model (GLMM) that was fitted to boldness scores using the R package MCMCglmm (Hadfield 2010). The model has been used in previous studies of this population (Patrick, Charmantier, and Weimerskirch 2013; Gillies et al. 2023), and full details on the methodology can be found therein. The model included the fixed effects of observation number and observer ID (typically one observer per year), a random intercept for individual ID, and a random effect for the additive genetic variance, represented as the matrix of pairwise relatedness amongst all individuals. The sex of most birds was determined by behavioural observations (i.e. copulatory position when present with the partner or pre-laying attendance), structural size, plumage differences, or molecular sexing based on blood sampling (Fridolfsson & Ellegren, 1999). |
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| Temporal Coverage: | |
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| Start Date | 2010-01-15 |
| End Date | 2010-02-28 |
| Start Date | 2011-01-14 |
| End Date | 2011-03-19 |
| Start Date | 2012-01-25 |
| End Date | 2012-03-26 |
| Start Date | 2013-01-17 |
| End Date | 2013-03-30 |
| Start Date | 2014-01-18 |
| End Date | 2014-03-29 |
| Start Date | 2015-01-08 |
| End Date | 2015-03-15 |
| Start Date | 2016-01-13 |
| End Date | 2016-04-18 |
| Start Date | 2017-01-17 |
| End Date | 2017-03-13 |
| Start Date | 2018-01-16 |
| End Date | 2018-03-13 |
| Start Date | 2019-01-19 |
| End Date | 2019-03-06 |
| Start Date | 2020-01-19 |
| End Date | 2020-03-03 |
| Start Date | 1965-01-01 |
| End Date | 2020-12-31 |
| Spatial Coverage: | |
| Latitude | |
| Southernmost | -68.9505 |
| Northernmost | -28.43238 |
| Longitude | |
| Westernmost | -23.85262 |
| Easternmost | 105.2033 |
| Altitude | |
| Min Altitude | N/A |
| Max Altitude | N/A |
| Depth | |
| Min Depth | N/A |
| Max Depth | N/A |
| Location: | |
| Location | Indian Ocean |
| Detailed Location | Possession Island, Crozet Islands archipelago |
| Sensor(s): |
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| Data Collection: | Global positioning system (GPS) loggers: IgotU 120/600, Mobile Action Technology, weighing up to 32g; X-GPS and Centurion, Sextant Technology, NZ weighing 60-75g. |
| Data Storage: | This dataset consists of 2 csv files: WAAL_breedingSuccess_1965-2020.csv ~1.7MB WAAL_gpsLocations_2010-2020.csv ~25MB 'WAAL' in the filename refers to the Institute for Bird Populations' four-letter alpha code for the species wandering albatross (Diomedea exulans). |
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