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Past records and current distribution of seabirds at Larsemann Hills and Schirmacher Oasis, east Antarctica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2020

Anant Pande Open the ORCID record for Anant Pande [Opens in a new window] ,
Samrat Mondol ,
Sambandam Sathyakumar ,
Vinod B. Mathur ,
Yogesh Ray  and
Kuppusamy Sivakumar
Anant Pande*
Affiliation:
Wildlife Institute of India, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India, Chandrabani, Dehradun – 248 001, Uttarakhand, India
Samrat Mondol
Affiliation:
Wildlife Institute of India, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India, Chandrabani, Dehradun – 248 001, Uttarakhand, India
Sambandam Sathyakumar
Affiliation:
Wildlife Institute of India, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India, Chandrabani, Dehradun – 248 001, Uttarakhand, India
Vinod B. Mathur
Affiliation:
Wildlife Institute of India, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India, Chandrabani, Dehradun – 248 001, Uttarakhand, India
Yogesh Ray
Affiliation:
National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India, Headland Sada, Vasco-da-Gama – 403 804, Goa, India
Kuppusamy Sivakumar
Affiliation:
Wildlife Institute of India, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India, Chandrabani, Dehradun – 248 001, Uttarakhand, India
*
Author for correspondence: Anant Pande, Email: anant@wii.gov.in
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Abstract

Seabird populations in Antarctica serve as indicators to assess the impacts of global environmental change. Ecological data on seabirds in Antarctica are scarce due to limited knowledge on their distribution and abundance in most parts of the continent. In this study, we investigated the status of seabird species around the Indian research stations Bharati at Larsemann Hills, Prydz bay and Maitri at Schirmacher Oasis, central Dronning Maud Land located in east Antarctica. We conducted primary surveys during austral summers under the Indian Antarctic Program and compiled published as well as unpublished information on seabird distribution from these areas. We employed intensive area search methods to locate presence of seabird nesting and moulting sites. Ten species were recorded from Larsemann Hills with confirmed breeding of snow petrel, south polar skua and Wilson’s storm-petrel. Only south polar skua and Adélie penguin were reported breeding at Schirmacher Oasis with unconfirmed breeding of Wilson’s storm-petrel. This study presents the first detailed synthesis of status of seabirds from Larsemann Hills and Schirmacher Oasis regions in Antarctica and serves as a strong baseline for future ecological work on seabirds in the sector of operation of Indian Antarctic Program.

Keywords

Indian Scientific Expeditions to AntarcticaSeabird distributionNesting sitesMoulting sitesOccupied territory
Type
Research Article
Information
Polar Record , Volume 56 , 2020 , e40
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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