Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2022L00775:reg:18:p73
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2022L00775
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 18 (pt 73/152)
Character Range: 241736–244878

al. 2013).
Penguins and their habitats may also be threatened by increased frequency of storm events at breeding sites (Wolfaardt et al. 2012). Severe mortality was recorded in moulting birds found unusually far from colonies in 2016, which appeared to be related to a set of poorly understood oceanographic conditions, leading to lowered primary productivity near breeding sites immediately before moult (Morgenthaler et al. 2018). Climate change may also lead to top-down changes in food web structure, causing increased inter-specific competition and secondary predation, e.g. competition and predation by the rapidly increasing pinniped (fur seal and sea lion) populations (Barlowet al. 2002, Raya Rey et al. 2012, Morrison et al. 2017). Overwintering conditions are thought to influence the proportions of birds skipping breeding at Marion Island (Crawford et al. 2006) and potentially elsewhere.

The number of Rockhopper Penguins returning to Marion Island to breed decreased by about 20 per cent between 1994/95 and 2007/08 and was significantly correlated with breeding success (Crawford et al. 2008). Another potential threat stems from interaction with fisheries; levels of bycatch mortality appear to be insignificant, but resource competition and indirect changes to the food web through modification of ecosystems may have more extensive impacts (Crawford et al. 2017). Land-based human threats at breeding sites, such as tourism, research and land management, are considered low, and although it may vary on local scales, disturbance from such activities is currently deemed not significant at an overall population level at the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) (Crofts 2014). Tourism is strictly regulated with visits only to a small percentage of the global population.

Recommended Management Actions
      Develop robust survey methods to quantify the breeding population on Macquarie, Heard and McDonald Islands

        Regularly monitor breeding populations at index locations

      Implement best practice quarantine measures at breeding colonies to reduce the risk of any invasive species (re)establishing on islands

        Maintain bycatch mitigation strategies in relevant fishery operations

Wildlife Conservation Plan for Seabirds 105

Species profiles

Macaroni Penguin (Eudyptes chrysolophus)

Life History and Distribution
The Macaroni Penguin (Eudyptes chrysolophus) is a medium sized penguin with a large red-brown bill. The species is larger than other Eudyptes penguins, except for the Royal Penguin (E. schlegeli). The species breeds at southern Chile, the Falkland Islands (Malvinas), South Georgia (Georgia del Sur) and the South Sandwich Islands (Islas Sandwich del Sur), the South Orkney and South Shetland Islands, Bouvet Island (to Norway), Prince Edward and Marion Islands (South Africa), Crozet Islands, Kerguelen Islands (French Southern Territories), Heard and McDonald Islands and very locally on the northern Antarctic Peninsula. Macaroni Penguins nest on level to steep ground, often walking hundreds of metres across steep scree slopes to nest-sites. The breeding cycle