Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Klemens Puetz, Camila Gherardi-Fuentes, Pablo Garcia-Borboroglu, Claudia Godoy, Marco Flagg, Julieta Pedrana, Juliana A. Vianna, Alejandro Simeone, Benno Luthi
Summary: The study found that King Penguins predominantly foraged in the Magellan Strait, with shorter dive depths and durations compared to conspecifics elsewhere. Their diet mainly consisted of Falkland sprats.
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Aymeric Houstin, Daniel P. Zitterbart, Alexander Winterl, Sebastian Richter, Victor Planas-Bielsa, Damien Chevallier, Andre Ancel, Jerome Fournier, Ben Fabry, Celine Le Bohec
Summary: An increasing number of marine animals are being equipped with biologgers to study their physiology, behavior, and ecology. This study proposes alternative techniques for emperor penguin capture and logger deployment to minimize potential negative impacts. The traditional attachment method was found to cause excessive feather breakage and device loss, leading to the suggestion of an alternative technique for back-mounted devices. The findings highlight the importance of monitoring the impacts of biologger deployments and improving methods to minimize disturbance.
Article
Agriculture, Dairy & Animal Science
Grace Fuller, Megan Jones, Kylen N. N. Gartland, Sara Zalewski, Matthew R. R. Heintz, Stephanie Allard
Summary: Habitat design has a significant impact on the welfare of captive animals. The study observed the behavior of ten king penguins as they were transferred between two habitats at the Detroit Zoo. The results showed that the penguins spent more time swimming, engaged in more positive social behaviors, and exhibited fewer aggressive behaviors in the larger and more complex habitat.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Mariana A. Juares, Ayelen Rios, Katya Albarran, Anahi M. Silvestro, Pablo Perchivale, Ricardo Casaux, M. Mercedes Santos
Summary: The study reports the observations of king penguins molting and attempting to breed at Stranger Point in the subantarctic region, as well as the first record of a molting individual at Esperanza/Hope Bay in Antarctica. The findings highlight the importance of documenting and monitoring king penguins in Antarctica to understand the potential impacts of climate change on their population and geographic range.
Article
Biology
Manfred R. Enstipp, Charles-Andre Bost, Celine Le Bohec, Nicolas Chatelain, Henri Weimerskirch, Yves Handrich
Summary: Juvenile king penguins possess remarkable dive capacity when they first leave their colony, but their dive and foraging performance remains below adult levels throughout their first year at sea, likely due to physiological limitations from incomplete maturation.
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Roland Proud, Camille Le Guen, Richard B. Sherley, Akiko Kato, Yan Ropert-Coudert, Norman Ratcliffe, Simon Jarman, Adam Wyness, John P. Y. Arnould, Ryan A. Saunders, Paul G. Fernandes, Lars Boehme, Andrew S. Brierley
Summary: Research on king penguins off South Georgia in 2017 revealed that they primarily forage near shallow and dense fish schools associated with deep scattering layers, consisting mainly of lanternfish, icefish, and painted noties. The diving behavior of penguins overlaps at fine scale with the depth distribution of fish schools, and neural network models were used to predict their habitat preferences.
FRONTIERS IN MARINE SCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Jonathan Handley, Marie-Morgane Rouyer, Elizabeth J. Pearmain, Victoria Warwick-Evans, Katharina Teschke, Jefferson T. Hinke, Heather Lynch, Louise Emmerson, Colin Southwell, Gary Griffith, Cesar A. Cardenas, Aldina M. A. Franco, Phil Trathan, Maria P. Dias
Summary: Global targets for area-based conservation and management should consider the quality of such areas in addition to threshold-based targets. In the Southern Ocean around Antarctica, where key biodiversity faces unprecedented risks from climate change and resource extraction demands are growing, evidence suggests that more high quality areas could benefit from a proposed network of marine protected areas (MPAs). Penguins, as indicator species, offer an opportunity to identify high quality marine areas and our data supports the designation of the proposed MPA network in Antarctic waters.
FRONTIERS IN MARINE SCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Psychology, Biological
Tracey L. Hammer, Pierre Bize, Claire Saraux, Benoit Gineste, Jean-Patrice Robin, Rene Groscolas, Vincent A. Viblanc
Summary: This study examined the repeatability of alert distance and flight initiation distance in flightless king penguins and found moderate repeatability in flight initiation distance but not in alert distance.
Article
Veterinary Sciences
Taiki Terajima, Anzu Shibahara, Yoshiaki Nakano, Shohei Kobayashi, John R. Godwin, Kentaro Nagaoka, Gen Watanabe, Hideshige Takada, Kaoruko Mizukawa
Summary: In this study, persistent organic chemicals were measured in the serum of captive king penguins, and it was found that their accumulation was age-related, with older individuals having a higher risk of contamination.
JOURNAL OF VETERINARY MEDICAL SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Natalie Petrovski, Grace J. Sutton, John P. Y. Arnould
Summary: Investigating foraging decisions helps understand how animals efficiently obtain and use food. This study used animal-borne cameras to examine predator-prey interactions in little penguins, discovering previously undocumented prey consumption and strategies. The study found that chase and handling times varied with prey type and that penguins consumed less profitable prey, suggesting a trade-off between minimizing energetic costs and increasing capture rates. These results demonstrate the importance of animal-borne video data loggers in studying foraging adaptations of marine predators.
ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Marine & Freshwater Biology
Hina Watanabe, Kozue Shiomi, Katsufumi Sato, Akinori Takahashi, Yves Handrich, Charles-Andre Bost
Summary: This study investigated the horizontal movements and foraging patterns of king penguins during distant foraging trips. It was found that penguins increased shallow diving time at night and midday, and deep diving time at dawn and twilight. The study also showed that the horizontal movement rates during deep dives were negatively correlated with maximum dive depths.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Hannah Joy Kriesell, Thierry Aubin, Victor Planas-Bielsa, Quentin Schull, Francesco Bonadonna, Clement Cornec, Yvon Le Maho, Laura Troudet, Celine Le Bohec
Summary: Reproductive success can be enhanced with age and experience in many long-lived species. Signals indicating age play a crucial role in mate choice and are subject to sexual selection. King penguins use colored beak spots, ear patches, and vocalizations as signals of age and condition during courtship. Both acoustic and visual signals are important in conveying age information, with the potential for bimodal communication during courtship.
Article
Veterinary Sciences
Jennifer P. Russell, Alexandria Mena, Matti Kiupel, Steven Osborn, Judy St Leger
Summary: This article describes a case of acute collapse and subsequent death in a male king penguin. The bird exhibited severe lymphocytic leukocytosis, elevated creatinine kinase, and mild anemia. Postmortem examination revealed infiltration of multiple organs with neoplastic lymphocytes of T-cell phenotype.
VETERINARY RECORD CASE REPORTS
(2022)
Article
Biology
Cassondra L. Williams, Max F. Czapanskiy, Jason S. John, Judy St Leger, Miriam Scadeng, Paul J. Ponganis
Summary: Marine birds and mammals are capable of extraordinary dives, with penguins relying on their respiratory system for oxygen storage. Research on emperor penguins wearing PO2 recorders revealed characteristics of their air sac oxygen pressures, with lower values at rest and a larger difference between cervical and thoracic air sacs. Oxygen depletion rates during dives were found to be significantly different between anterior and posterior air sacs.
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Marine & Freshwater Biology
Emile Brisson-Curadeau, Yves Handrich, Kyle H. Elliott, Charles-Andre Bost
Summary: Remotely estimating prey-capture rates in wild animals is crucial for assessing foraging success. Accelerometers have been shown to be more precise than traditional depth-derived measures in detecting prey captures, and in this study, they were found to be almost twice as accurate at predicting prey-capture events as depth-derived variables. This highlights the usefulness of accelerometers for measuring animal behavior, particularly in deep-diving species.
