Fine-scale foraging behaviour of an inshore marine top-predator: implications for marine management

Understanding where animals get their resources from is crucial to manage and conserve important habitats. Here, I use little penguins from Phillip Island to investigate their foraging and diving behaviour in the northern Bass Strait. By monitoring foraging trips and diving performance of penguins, I obtained fine-scale data on movement and habitat use that revealed where their feeding hotspots are and how these change over time and space. I found a strong spatial foraging segregation between two neighbouring colonies and a high variability in the distribution of penguins’ foraging areas. These findings have direct implications for local marine spatial planning.