Little penguins work together to hunt schooling prey
Date: December 16, 2015
Source: PLOS
Little penguins were more likely to work together to hunt schooling prey
than solitary prey, according to observations made using animal-borne cameras
published Dec. 2, 2015 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by
Grace Sutton from the Deakin University, Australia, and colleagues.
Group foraging in cooperative animals provides predators with advantages
over prey, but for less cooperative colonial-breeding predators, like the
little penguin, the benefits of group foraging are less clear due to the
potential for competition between penguins. The authors of this study used
animal-borne cameras on 21 little penguins from two breeding colonies in
south-eastern Australia to determine the prey types, hunting strategies, and
success of little penguins, a small, marine predator that extensively forages
with other little penguins.
