RESEARCH ARTICLE Reappraisal of the Trophic Ecology of One of the World’s Most Threatened Spheniscids, the African Penguin Maëlle Connan1*, G. J. Greg Hofmeyr2,3, Pierre A Pistorius1 1 DST/NRF Centre of Excellence at the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, Department of Zoology, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth, 6031, South Africa, 2 Department of Zoology, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth, 6031, South Africa, 3 Port Elizabeth Museum at Bayworld, Humewood, Port Elizabeth, 6013, South Africa a11111 *
[email protected] Abstract Many species of seabirds, including the only penguin species breeding on the African conti- OPEN ACCESS nent, are threatened with extinction. The world population of the endangered African pen- Citation: Connan M, Hofmeyr GJG, Pistorius PA guin Spheniscus demersus has decreased from more than 1.5 million individuals in the (2016) Reappraisal of the Trophic Ecology of One of early 1900s to c.a. 23 000 pairs in 2013. Determining the trophic interactions of species, the World’s Most Threatened Spheniscids, the African Penguin. PLoS ONE 11(7): e0159402. especially those of conservation concern, is important when declining numbers are thought doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0159402 to be driven by food limitation. By and large, African penguin dietary studies have relied on Editor: Yan Ropert-Coudert, Centre National de la the identification of prey remains from stomach contents. Despite all the advantages of this Recherche Scientifique, Centre d'Etudes Biologiques method, it has well known biases. We therefore assessed the African penguin’s diet, using de Chize, FRANCE stable isotopes, at two colonies in Algoa Bay (south-east coast of South Africa).