Abstract:
The weights of fledging macaroni penguin chicks at Bird Island have been monitored since 1989. The colony at Fairy Point, also known as Little Mac, contains approximately 400 breeding pairs. Each year, just before their departure from the colony, a sample of 100 fledgling birds are weighed as part of the Bird Island long-term monitoring programme. This data is submitted to the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) as part of their Ecosystem Monitoring Programme (CEMP).
This dataset is an updated version of Trathan, P., Waluda, C., & Ratcliffe, N. (2021). Fledging weights of Macaroni penguin chicks from a colony at Fairy Point, Bird Island, from 1989 to 2020 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/85356871-55ee-4b92-a9e8-9b370c843936. The update consists of five additional years of data. No changes have been made to the data included in version 1.0 of the dataset.
This work was funded by Natural Environment Research Council (UK) core funding to the British Antarctic Survey.
Keywords:
Bird Island, Eudyptes chrysolophus, fledging mass, macaroni penguin
Trathan, P.N., Waluda, C.M., Ratcliffe, N., & Bennison, A. (2026). Fledging weights of macaroni penguin chicks from a colony at Fairy Point, Bird Island, from 1989 to 2025 - VERSION 2.0 (Version 2.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/694d1d07-da51-42b7-94b0-4404e50bdf99
| 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: | 2026-01-30 |
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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 | Dr Philip N Trathan |
| Role(s) | Investigator |
| Organisation | British Antarctic Survey |
| Name | Dr Claire M Waluda |
| Role(s) | Investigator |
| Organisation | British Antarctic Survey |
| Name | Dr Norman Ratcliffe |
| Role(s) | Investigator |
| Organisation | British Antarctic Survey |
| Name | Dr Ashley Bennison |
| Role(s) | Investigator, Technical Contact |
| Organisation | British Antarctic Survey |
| Parent Dataset: | N/A |
| Reference: | Waluda C.M., Hill S.L., Peat H.J., Trathan P.N. (2012) Diet variability and reproductive performance of macaroni penguins Eudyptes chrysolophus at Bird Island, South Georgia. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 466:261-274 https://doi.org/10.3354/meps09930 Trathan, P. N., Fielding, S., Hollyman, P. R., Murphy, E. J., Warwick-Evans, V., Collins, M. A. (2021) Enhancing the ecosystem approach for the fishery for Antarctic krill within the complex, variable, and changing ecosystem at South Georgia. ICES Journal of Marine Science. 78:6 2065-2081 https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsab092 Trathan, P., Waluda, C., Ratcliffe, N., & Bennison, A. (2026). Breeding success of macaroni penguins at Bird Island, South Georgia, from 1978 to 2025 - VERSION 2.0 [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/8902f094-1d1f-4092-9aa5-180a2a8e57ec Trathan, P., Waluda, C., Ratcliffe, N., & Bennison, A. (2026). Arrival weights of macaroni penguins at Bird Island, from 1988 to 2025 - VERSION 2.0 [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/472713db-3724-442f-8a24-a1f8834123d9 |
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| Lineage/Methodology: | 100 Macaroni penguin chicks at Fairy Point (Little Mac) are caught and weighed on the 18th February each year. All chicks are weighed using a 10kg Pesola and bag. Care is taken to ensure no individual is weighed more than once. All sampling procedures used are regulated by the British Antarctic Survey Ethical Review Committee in collaboration with Cambridge University and the UK Home Office. This dataset has been updated to add five additional years of weights. The metadata has been updated accordingly. All data were collected under permit from the Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. All sampling procedures used were regulated by the British Antarctic Survey Ethical Review Committee in collaboration with Cambridge University and the UK Home Office. |
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| Ownership: | ||
| Temporal Coverage: | |
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| Start Date | 1989-02-06 |
| End Date | 2025-02-18 |
| Spatial Coverage: | |
| Latitude | |
| Southernmost | -54.01 |
| Northernmost | -54.01 |
| Longitude | |
| Westernmost | -38.0767 |
| Easternmost | -38.0767 |
| Altitude | |
| Min Altitude | N/A |
| Max Altitude | N/A |
| Depth | |
| Min Depth | N/A |
| Max Depth | N/A |
| Location: | |
| Location | South Georgia Island |
| Detailed Location | Fairy Point, Bird Island |
| Data Storage: | x1 .csv file. |
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