In the Antarctic Peninsula, central place foragers like Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) are constraint by food availability and breeding stage. Parents reproduction is timed so the chick-rearing period coincides with the highest resource availability. Theory predicts breeders foraging far from the colony will visit areas of better prey quality than available locally. In addition, breeding colonial seabirds could create “Ashmole’s halo”, a food depleted zone around the colony. Integrating telemetry-based movement and environmental datasets for 33 nesting Adélie penguins at Kopaitic Island, we tested foraging behaviour in response to breeding stage and local productivity. We the foraging areas of the penguins differed by breeding stage and were strongly associated with productivity of the area. Throughout the breeding season trips became shorter and closer to the colony, matching an increase of productivity in the area. Trips characterization reflected low competition probably due to the small size of the colony and increased availability of resources as the breeding season progressed, not confirming “Ashmole’s halo” theory for this colony.
These results suggest in the year of our study, Adélies may have been able to feed their chicks by repeated short trips near the colony, and prey availability was locally high.
