Investigation of foraging decisions can help understand how animals efficiently gather and exploit food. Prey chase and handling times are important aspects of foraging efficiency, influencing the net energy gain derived from a prey item. However, these metrics are often overlooked in studies of foraging behaviour due to the difficulty in observing them. The present study used animal-borne cameras to investigate the type, duration and energetic consequences of predator-prey interactions in little penguins (Eudyptula minor) (n = 32) from two colonies in Bass Strait, south-eastern Australia. A total of 7 main prey items were observed and consumed by little penguins. Penguins were observed to consume prey types and use strategies that have not been previously documented. These included consumption of bellowsfish (Macroramphosus scolopax) and other fish species captured sheltering around jellyfish or extracted dead from the tentacles. Chase and handling time varied with prey type and lasted ~2 s for most prey. Profitability varied amongst prey types, with a greater amount of low profitable prey being consumed, suggesting a trade-off between minimising energetic costs, and increasing capture rates. These results highlight the use of animal-borne video data loggers to further understand the foraging adaptations of important predators in the marine environment.

Video data were obtained from animal-borne cameras. Video files were analysed frame-by-frame to assign behaviour categories of individuals and identify prey capture attempts and outcomes.

The data are available as csv files which can be accessed in any text editor or Excel.