First GPS record of a Red-legged Cormorant off the coast of Peru suggests pelagic foraging behavior

Red-legged Cormorants (Poikilocarbo gaimardi) are distributed along the Pacific coast of South America, from Peru to Chile, and restricted to southernmost Argentina along the Atlantic coast. Population monitoring of this species in the Pacific is scarce and research on their ecology has been limited to Argentina, where it has been considered a rocky bottom feeder, travelling distances of ~3 km away from the nest. We deployed and retrieved a GPS device on one adult Red-legged Cormorant at Punta Atico, Arequipa, Peru, in June 2018. Foraging trips of the tracked individual were on average ~6 km away from the nest and reached a maximum of 10 km. More than 50% of trips occurred in pelagic habitats and were widely dispersed around the nest. Based on the observation of this individual we suggest that in the productive Peruvian Humboldt Current System, Red-legged Cormorants may be pelagic foragers rather than benthic specialists. These results have important implications for conservation strategies aimed to protect this seabird species along the Peruvian coast.