A Southern Giant Petrel is photographed at sea wearing a Global Positioning System device

The Southern Giant Petrel with its prominent back-mounted transmitter

Christophe Gouraud, Polar Collective Seabird Surveys, photographed a flying Southern Giant Petrel Macronectes giganteus with a back-mounted device at sea at 44°26S, 61°21W, approximately 300 km off Chubut Province, Argentina in the South Atlantic around 27 December 2025.

Close up of the transmitter with its raised solar panel, photographs by Christophe Gouraud

Following an enquiry by the SCAR Expert Group on Birds and Marine Mammals, the following information was received from Flavio Quintana.

The photographed bird is an “adult male fitted with an AXY-Trek Remote (Technosmart, Italy) on 31 December 2023, at the Isla Gran Robredo colony, Patagonia, Argentina.  The data are transmitted to a base station located on the island each time the birds visit the colony, both during breeding and non-breeding seasons.”

Flavio adds “This is a long-term project related to the spatial ecology of the species’ breeding populations in Argentina.  The project has been led by Flavio Quintana since 1998 and, over the past three years, has been carried out in collaboration with Fundación Rewilding Argentina.”

The Axy-Trek Remote is a small data logger with GPS, a tri-axial accelerometer and remote data download via UHF up to two kilometres with solar power (click here).

Information from Manuela Bassoi, Secretary, SCAR/EGBAMM.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 09 February 2026