Using Predicted Patterns of 3D Prey Distribution to Map King Penguin Foraging Habitat

King penguins ( Aptenodytes patagonicus ) are an iconic Southern Ocean species, but the prey distributions that underpin their at-sea foraging tracks and diving behaviour remain unclear. We conducted simultaneous acoustic surveys off South Georgia tracking of king breeding ashore there in Austral summer 2017 to gain insight into habitat use behaviour. Acoustic revealed ubiquitous deep scattering layers (DSLs; acoustically detected fish other micronekton inhabit mesopelagic zone) at c. 500 m shallower ephemeral schools. Based on DNA extracted from penguin faecal samples, these schools were likely comprised lanternfish (an important component diets), icefish Channichthyidae spp.) painted noties Lepidonotothen larseni ). Penguins did not dive as DSLs, prey-encounter depth-distributions, by biologging, overlapped fine scale (10s m) with depths used neural networks predict local (10 km) echo intensity depth distribution locations based environmental correlates, developed models use. Habitat modelling preferentially foraged predicted have shallow dense (high energy) associated DSLs. These associations could be colonies for which no data available, identify areas potential ecological significance within Sandwich Islands marine protected area.