Abstract:
The weights of fledging Gentoo penguin chicks at Bird Island have been monitored since 1989. The colony at Johnson Cove can have over 1000 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 Gentoo penguin chicks from a colony at Johnson Cove, Bird Island, from 1989 to 2020 - VERSION 1.0 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/8d60d83b-d880-4042-b344-42d0551e65be.The update consists of five additional years of data. No changes have been made to the data included in the previous dataset.
This work was funded by Natural Environment Research Council (UK) core funding to the British Antarctic Survey.
Keywords:
Bird Island, Pygoscelis papua, fledging mass, gentoo penguin
Bennison, A., Trathan, P., Waluda, C., & Ratcliffe, N. (2026). Fledging weights of Gentoo penguin chicks from a colony at Johnson Cove, Bird Island, from 1989 to 2025 - VERSION 2.0 (Version 2.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/41c6b474-241a-494d-83a0-e4e6c4a846da
| 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 Ashley Bennison |
| Role(s) | Investigator, Technical Contact |
| 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 |
| Parent Dataset: | N/A |
| Reference: | P N Trathan, S Fielding, P R Hollyman, E J Murphy, V Warwick-Evans, M A Collins, 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, Volume 78, Issue 6, September 2021, Pages 2065-2081, https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsab092 | |
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| Lineage/Methodology: | One hundred days after peak laying (this is defined as the date when 75% of monitored nests have eggs laid), 100 gentoo penguin chicks are caught and weighed at the Johnson Cove colony. To ensure each chick is weighed only once, chicks are temporarily marked after weighing. To aid capture, chicks are rounded up into an area by the rocks at once side of the colony. Firkling hooks are also used which causes slightly less disturbance. The birds are weighed using a 10kg pesola and bag. This dataset has been updated to add five additional years of counts. 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 | 2025-01-25 |
| Spatial Coverage: | |
| Latitude | |
| Southernmost | -54.0176 |
| Northernmost | -54.0176 |
| Longitude | |
| Westernmost | -38.0779 |
| Easternmost | -38.0779 |
| 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 | Johnson Cove, Bird Island |
| Data Storage: | x1 .csv file |
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