Young penguins suffer at
feeding time due to an inflexible division of parental duties
Date: February 10, 2016
Source: Springer
The fixed division of
labour between crested penguin parents increases their chicks' vulnerability to
food shortages made ever more common by climate change. The parents have been
unable to adapt their habits to the challenges of increasingly frequent years
of limited food supply and, as a result, will become further threatened by
extinction. So says Kyle Morrison of Massey
University and the National Institute
of Water & Atmospheric Research in New Zealand
The main duties of all
penguin parents are to provide food and to defend their offspring against
predatory seabirds and other intruding penguins. While on guard duty, parents
fast and do not go off to sea to feed. Most penguins avoid long fasting periods
by alternating brooding and chick-provisioning duties between the sexes.
However, the seven species of Eudyptespenguins (the crested penguins,
including rockhopper penguins) are an exception. Males guard and fast for the
first three to four weeks after eggs have hatched. During this time, females
are the sole providers. During the next six weeks, chicks gather together in
crèches and can be fed by both parents. During this crèche phase, both sexes
may make extended multi-day trips to sea to regain weight.
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