Acoustic Foraging Network in African Penguins: significance and vulnerability to anthropogenic noise.

Project Information

AFNAP

Grant agreement ID: 101026088

DOI

10.3030/101026088

Project closed

EC signature date 19 March 2021

Start date 1 April 2021

End date 31 March 2023

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 196 707,84

EU contribution

€ 191 061,68

Coordinated by

CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS
France

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - AFNAP (Acoustic Foraging Network in African Penguins: significance and vulnerability to anthropogenic noise.)

Reporting period: 2021-04-01 to 2023-03-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Seabirds spend most of their life at sea, but little is known about the way they may interact and communicate at sea. African penguin are coastal seabirds endemic to southern Africa. They display a coordinated feeding behaviour and benefit from feeding in groups. This project investigates the mechanisms by which these seabirds may coordinate group activities at sea by studying their at-sea vocal communication. African penguins being endangered and threatened by increasing anthropogenic activities in coastal environments, a comprehensive evaluation of potential impacts of noise pollution on these populations is urgent.
Therefore, the AFNAP project has two components: (1) the fundamental research assessing the existence and significance of a foraging network based on acoustic signals in a diving seabird, the African penguin, and (2) contributing to the mitigation of anthropogenic marine noise pollution on Endangered seabird populations.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The project is divided into three research aims:
(1) Describe the vocal communication used by foraging African penguins
(2) Quantify the implementation of an acoustic foraging network
(3) Evaluate the potential impact of anthropogenic marine noise on foraging African penguins

To respond to Research Aim 1, African penguins were equipped with acoustic devices (hydrophones), accelerometers and time-depth recorders. A total of 29 individuals were equipped from 3 different colonies over 2 breeding seasons from 2021 to 2022. The acoustic analyses of sound recordings revealed that African penguins produce several types of vocalisations all along their foraging trip, in the early part of the trip when the penguins were commuting, as well as further away when they were actively searching for prey in between and within dive bouts.

To respond to Research Aim 2, acoustic propagation experiments were conducted to estimate the theoretical active space of the African penguin sea-surface vocalisations (i.e. the distance at which the vocalisations can propagate in their natural foraging environment). Results confirm the hypothesis that African penguins can use vocalisations to communicate over relatively long distances at sea (scale of 100s of meters).
Furthermore, acoustic playback experiments were conducted where sea-surface vocalisations were broadcasted at sea (from a boat) using a speaker towards free-ranging foraging penguins. The behavioural response of the penguins was recorded using a hand-held microphone (vocal responses) and a camera (heads looking up towards the speaker, approaches). Overall, penguins responded to the majority of the playback experiments, mostly vocally and sometimes approaching the boat. The results of these playback experiments confirm the hypothesis that African penguins use vocal communication to maintain contact at sea and to form groups with conspecifics when they are foraging.

To respond to Research Aim 3, acoustic playback experiments of boat noise have been conducted from the sea shore on African penguins. The reaction of penguins included opening eyes, standing up and turning the head towards the speaker. These observations confirm that penguins can hear and react to the noise emitted by boats, and that such human-made noise is likely to disturb their natural behaviour. Furthermore, underwater acoustic devices were deployed in the foraging range of African penguins in Algoa bay (South Africa), in order to record the ambient marine noise that penguins are exposed to in their foraging area.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The results of this project clearly demonstrate that the African penguins use vocal communication to keep contact with distant conspecifics at sea and to recruit them to form groups when they are foraging. They thus form a network at sea based on acoustic signals as part of their foraging strategy (or in other words, they form an “Acoustic Foraging Network”). These results reveal a rich and diverse vocal communication that could have a strong bearing on the foraging efficiency of the African penguins. As a consequence, the current observed increase in anthropogenic noise levels above and underwater may have a strong negative effect on the ability of these penguins to efficiently communicate at sea, potentially contributing to the ongoing decline of this endangered species.

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