Above Picture: A Southern Giant Petrel in flight over Marion Island
NOTE: This post is the sixth in an occasional series that aims to feature photographs of those breeding seabirds of Marion Island which are being attacked by mice, or are considered to be at risk to them The aim is to introduce the birds to readers in such a way as to explain the passion that island researchers and photographers, and all the members of the MFM Team, feel for the island and its birds. Here, Tegan Carpenter-Kling writes about her thesis research that included working with Southern Giant Petrels Macronectes giganteus (globally Least Concern and regionally Near threatened) while spending a year on South Africa’s sub-Antarctic possession in the southern Indian Ocean.
Sadly, Tegan’s collection of photographs taken at Marion Island were lost when her laptop and hard drives with backups were stolen during a home burglary back in South Africa. Her account is instead illustrated by fellow Marion researcher, John Dickens.
Tegan Carpenter-Kling at Triegaardt Bay, Marion Island; photograph by John Dickens
In 2013, I was selected as one of the lucky few to spend a year on Marion Island as a ‘birder’. As a field assistant for the South African Government, I was responsible for population counts and monitoring of demographic parameters of the various seabirds breeding on the island. This was the most extraordinary year of my life. For the first time, not only did I feel the exhilarating joy of exploring a completely wild sub-Antarctic island, I also felt the thudding of new passion beginning to bud as I glimpsed into the daily lives of Southern Ocean seabirds.
A Southern Giant Petrel, blood-splattered after a feeding bout in a King Penguin colony on Marion Island
The year I over-wintered on Marion Island during 2013/14 ignited my early career in seabirds. Since then, I have obtained my MSc and PhD degrees in Zoology, which both focused on the foraging ecology of the island’s seabirds. Within my MSc dissertation, I described the foraging ecology of Marion Island’s Gentoo Penguins using data collected from Temperature and Depth Recorders (TDRs) and GPS loggers and investigated correlations between the species’ diet and the local oceanography using data collected over 19 years.
Bath time for a Southern Giant Petrel following feeding in a near-by penguin colony
I returned to Marion for a second year (2015/16) to collect data towards my PhD research, which expanded to a study of the foraging ecology of 12 marine predators on the island using tracking and stable isotope data. I studied four albatrosses (Wandering, Grey-headed, Sooty and Light-mantled), King, Gentoo, Macaroni and Southern Rockhopper Penguins, Northern and Southern Giant Petrels and sub-Antarctic and Antarctic Fur Seals, all species which breed on Marion Island. My thesis investigated firstly, how the albatrosses altered their foraging behaviour in response to meso- and large-scale environmental variability, and secondly, the inter- and intra-annual dynamic isotopic niche partitioning of all 12 species over two seasons and three years. Lastly, using the unique and amazing dataset my research led to, I investigated some of the assumptions scientists use when making inferences about a marine predator’s foraging behaviour from the stable isotopic compositions of their tissues by producing predator-level ‘isoscapes’ and by using a simple agent-based model of a giant petrel.
A curious Southern Giant Petrel on BUS Beach, Possession Island, Crozet Archipelago; photograph by Tegan Carpenter-Kling
Last year I took up the position of Coastal Seabird Project Manager with BirdLife South Africa. My research is now much closer to home and is largely focused on using biologging data from African Penguins, Cape Gannets and Cape Cormorants in and out of the breeding season to inform conservation and management strategies. Refocusing on coastal seabirds was a bitter-sweet moment in my career. I first fell in love with seabirds while traversing from colony to colony over the rugged Marion Island landscape. An epic experience that is awarded to very few individuals. Although day-to-day life is no longer as epic (but still as inspiring), the South African seabirds are facing some dangerous anthropogenic threats and I am very privileged to be part of a team that is continuously striving to improve their conservation status.
Can I have some more please? A Southern Giant Petrel chick nestles against its parent
Other than Marion Island and South Africa’s many coastal islands, I have been extremely fortunate to have visited Antarctica and the French Crozet, Kerguelen, Amsterdam and St Paul Islands in the southern Indian Ocean. Perhaps one of the most charismatic and prominent species which visits most of these islands, including South African waters, is the Southern Giant Petrel. On many sub-Antarctic islands and along the coast of Antarctica, this stocky bird can be seen scavenging and fighting over penguin and seal carcasses on the shoreline, reminiscent of a hyena or a vulture. Farther inland their communal and peaceful colonies dot flat plains or Blechnum fern slopes. A precious moment during any southern latitude adventure is coming upon a Southern Giant Petrel ‘conference’ engrossed in a loud and raucous meeting where a group of some five to ten birds sit in a circle facing each other, seemingly taking turns to produce their dinosaur-like and eery calls. This is, however, a very sweet bird which is a pleasure to work with, although I wouldn’t trust them not to pick my bones clean should I ever pass away close enough to one of their breeding colonies.
With thanks to John Dickens for his photographs.
Selected Publications:
Carpenter-Kling, T. 2020. Foraging in a dynamic environment: movement and stable isotope ecology of marine top predators breeding at the Prince Edward Archipelago. PhD thesis. Gqeberha: Nelson Mandela University. 208 pp.
Carpenter-Kling T., Connan, M., Reisinger, R.R., Makhado, A.B., Ryan, P.G. & Pistorius, P.A. In review. Dynamic resource partitioning in a sub-Antarctic marine predator community. Functional Ecology.
Carpenter-Kling, T., Pistorius, P.A., Connan, M., Reisinger, R.R. & Trueman, C. 2019. Sensitivity of δ13C values of seabird tissues to combined spatial, temporal and ecological drivers: a simulation approach. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 512: 12-21.
Carpenter-Kling, T., Pistorius, P.A., Reisinger, R.R., Cherel, Y. & Connan, M. 2020. A critical assessment of marine predator isoscapes within the Southern Indian Ocean. Movement Ecology 8: 10.1186/s40462-020-00208-8.
Carpenter-Kling, T., Reisinger, R.R., Orgeret, F., Connan, M., Stevens, K., Ryan, P.G., Makhado, A. & Pistorius, P.E. 2020. Response of four sympatric sub-Antarctic albatross species to environmental variability. Ecology and Evolution 10: 11277-11295.
Dilley, B.J., Schoombie, S., Stevens, K., Davies, D., Perold, V., Osborne, A., Schoombie, J., Brink, C., Carpenter-Kling, T. & Ryan, P.G. 2019. Mouse predation affects breeding success of burrow-nesting petrels at sub-Antarctic Marion Island. Antarctic Science 30: 93-104.
Orgeret, F., Reisinger, R.R., Carpenter-Kling T., Key, D.Z., Corbeau, A., Bost, C.A., Weimerskirch, H. & Pistorius, P.A. 2021. Spatial segregation in a sexually-dimorphic central place forager: competitive exclusion or niche divergence? Journal of Animal Ecology: 10.1111/1365-2656.13552.
Reisinger, R.R., Carpenter-Kling, T., Connan, M., Cherel. Y. & Pistorius, P.A. 2020. Foraging behaviour and habitat-use drives niche segregation in sibling seabird species. Royal Society Open Science 7: 200649.
Vanstreels, R.E.T., Yabsley, M.J., Swanepoel, L., Stevens, K.L., Carpenter-Kling, T., Ryan, P.G. & Pistorius, P.A. 2018. Molecular characterization and lesions associated with Diomedenema diomedeae (Aproctoidea: Desmidocercidae) from grey-headed albatrosses (Thalassarche chrysostoma) on sub-Antarctic Marion Island. International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife 7: 155-160.
Tegan Carpenter-Kling, Coastal Seabird Project Manager, BirdLife South Africa, 23 December 2021
