A5073165528- Avian ecology and behavior
- Marine and fisheries research
- Marine animal studies overview
- Fish Ecology and Management Studies
- Animal Vocal Communication and Behavior
- Animal Behavior and Reproduction
- Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
- Marine and coastal plant biology
- Coral and Marine Ecosystems Studies
- Species Distribution and Climate Change
- Fire effects on ecosystems
- Plant and animal studies
- Marine Invertebrate Physiology and Ecology
- Computational Physics and Python Applications
- Agricultural pest management studies
- Economic and Environmental Valuation
- Genetic and Environmental Crop Studies
- Scientific Research and Discoveries
- Orthoptera Research and Taxonomy
- Marine Ecology and Invasive Species
- Arctic and Russian Policy Studies
- Coastal and Marine Management
- Genetic diversity and population structure
- Marine and environmental studies
- Underwater Acoustics Research
Nelson Mandela University
2017-2024
University of Cape Town
2014-2022
Google (United States)
2021
National Research Foundation
2017
Global forage-fish landings are increasing, with potentially grave consequences for marine ecosystems. Predators of forage fish may be influenced by this harvest, but the nature these effects is contentious. Experimental fishery manipulations offer best solution to quantify population-level impacts, rare. We used Bayesian inference examine changes in chick survival, body condition and population growth rate endangered African penguins Spheniscus demersus response 8 years alternating...
Marine piscivores have evolved a variety of morphological and behavioural adaptations, including group foraging, to optimize foraging efficiency when targeting shoaling fish. For penguins that are known associate at sea feed on these prey resources, there is nonetheless lack empirical evidence support improved with conspecifics. We examined the hunting strategies performance breeding African equipped animal-borne video recorders. Individuals pursued both solitary as well schooling pelagic...
Seismic surveys in search for oil or gas under the seabed, produce most intense man-made ocean noise with known impacts on invertebrates, fish and marine mammals. No evidence to date exists, however, about potential seabirds. Penguins may be expected particularly affected by loud underwater sounds, due their largely aquatic existence. This study investigated behavioural response of breeding endangered African Spheniscus demersus seismic within 100 km colony South Africa, using a multi-year...
Marine predators, such as seabirds, are useful indicators of marine ecosystem functioning. In particular, seabird diet may reflect variability in food-web composition due to natural or human-induced environmental change. Diet monitoring programmes, which sample non-invasively, valuable aids conservation and management decision-making. We investigated the an increasing population greater crested terns Thalasseus bergii Western Cape, South Africa, during three successive breeding seasons (2013...
In 2016, South Africa became the first African country to draft Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) legislation. The underlying legal framework supports achievement of ecological, social and economic objectives, but a national policy grow oceans economy provides challenge for ecosystem-based approaches MSP. During 2018 International Conservation Congress in Borneo, we convened special session discuss particular challenges that will likely apply any developing seeking increase profits from...
MEPS Marine Ecology Progress Series Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout JournalEditorsTheme Sections 569:187-203 (2017) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps12089 Small pelagic fish responses fine-scale oceanographic conditions: implications for endangered African penguin Alistair M. McInnes1,*, Peter G. Ryan1, Miguel Lacerda2, Julie Deshayes3, Wayne S. Goschen4,5, Lorien Pichegru1,5,6 1DST-NRF Centre of...
Abstract The African penguin population has declined precipitously in recent decades, and if current rates of decline persist, this species could become extinct the wild by 2035. Resource extraction small pelagic fish prey purse-seine fishery around breeding colonies been identified as a demographically meaningful threat to penguins. Consequently, long-term, effective no-take zones have endorsed an expert panel scientists constituted South government. Here, we consider six largest that...
Visual and olfactory signals are commonly used by seabirds to locate prey in the horizontal domain, but foraging success depends on depth seabird's ability access it. Facilitation diving has long been hypothesized as a mechanism elevate deep regions more accessible volant seabirds, this never demonstrated empirically. Footage from animal-borne video loggers deployed African penguins was analysed establish if seabird encounters involved active cuing obtain and, during mutual encounters,...
Social cohesion and prey location in seabirds are largely enabled through visual olfactory signals, but these behavioural aspects could potentially also be enhanced acoustic transfer of information. Should this the case, calling behaviour influenced by different social–ecological stimuli. African Penguins Spheniscus demersus were equipped with animal‐borne video recorders to determine whether frequency types calls emitted at sea dependent on modes (commuting, sedentary dive bout) social...
Abstract Video data are widely collected in ecological studies, but manual annotation is a challenging and time‐consuming task, has become bottleneck for scientific research. Classification models based on convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have proved successful annotating images, few applications extended these to video classification. We demonstrate an approach that combines standard CNN summarizing each frame with recurrent network (RNN) the temporal component of video. The illustrated...
Technological advances have enabled the observation of foraging behaviour in wild marine animals. We can observe where they go, how deep dive, much energy expend, and with use animal-borne cameras we capture specific behaviours. Here describe a newly observed African Penguins Spheniscus demersus which target fish located jellyfish tentacles. As only been deployed on since 2015 it is unclear whether this novel or previously unobserved. The appears to be opportunistic beneficial as enables...
Studies investigating how mobile marine predators respond to their prey are limited due the challenging nature of environment. While top increasingly easy study thanks developments in bio-logging technology, typically there is scant information on distribution and abundance prey, largely specialised acquiring this information. We explore potential using single-beam recreational fish-finders (RFF) quantify relative forage fish draw inferences at a fine spatial scale. compared school...
Abstract Understanding functional relationships between seabirds and prey can play an important role in the sustainable management of fisheries that compete for same resources yet data linking foraging performance directly with concurrent information on supplies remain limited. We assess influence availability breeding African penguins Spheniscus demersus using from instrumented birds during 14 pelagic fish surveys carried out over 3 years around their two largest colonies, St Croix Bird...
Abstract The population of the Endangered African penguin Spheniscus demersus has decreased by > 65% in last 20 years. A major driver this decrease been reduced availability their principal prey, sardine Sardinops sagax and anchovy Engraulis encrasicolus. To date, conservation efforts to improve prey have focused on spatial management strategies reduce resource competition with purse-seine fisheries during breeding season. However, penguins also undergo an annual catastrophic moult when...
Abstract African penguins are among the most threatened seabird species globally and an Penguin Biodiversity Management Plan (BMP) published in 2013 guides conservation strategies to prevent their extinction. To counter impact of past guano exploitation which reduced nesting habitat these burrowing seabirds, rendering them vulnerable predators extreme weather events, a suite artificial nests was deployed various colonies over decades with varying success. The BMP called for new nest designs...
Abstract Video data are widely collected in ecological studies but manual annotation is a challenging and time-consuming task, has become bottleneck for scientific research. Classification models based on convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have proved successful annotating images, few applications extended these to video classification. We demonstrate an approach that combines standard CNN summarizing each frame with recurrent network (RNN) the temporal component of video. The illustrated...
African penguins (Spheniscus demersus) are an endangered species. Little is known regarding their underwater hunting strategies and associated predation success rates, yet this essential for guiding conservation. Modern bio-logging technology has the potential to provide valuable insights, but manually analysing large amounts of data from animal-borne video recorders (AVRs) time-consuming. In paper, we publish dataset introduce a ready-to-deploy deep learning system capable robustly...