No-fishing zones help endangered penguins

SOUTH AFRICA – Small no-fishing zones around colonies of African penguins can help this struggling species, new research shows.

African penguins. Photo credit: Richard Sherley

Working with the South African government, researchers from the University of Exeter and University of Cape Town tested bans on catching "forage fish" such as sardines and anchovies – key prey for the endangered penguins – from 20 km around their breeding islands.

The body condition and survival of chicks improved when the no-fishing zones were in place.

More research is needed, but the scientists say the fishing closures should continue in South Africa and should be considered elsewhere.

Fishing nets major threat to penguins

AUSTRALIA – The results of the first global review of penguin bycatch are in – and they highlight the serious risks that fishing nets pose to the survival of many penguin species. The study was published in the journal Endangered Species Research.

Penguins are among the world’s most iconic and loved birds, in spite of the fact most people will never get to see one in the wild. And opportunities to do so are diminishing, with 10 of the 18 penguin species threatened with extinction. After albatrosses, penguins are the most threatened group of seabirds. And this global review shows that, as it is for albatrosses, bycatch is a serious threat to some penguin species.

Yellow-eyed penguin nest numbers down

NEW ZEALAND – Recent yellow-eyed/hoiho penguin nest counts on mainland New Zealand indicate a continued decline in numbers in some areas for this rare species, said Department of Conservation (DOC) Threatened Species Ambassador Nicola Toki.

DOC carries out monitoring, research, and intensive management for yellow-eyed penguins alongside Treaty Partner Ngāi Tahu, key programme partner the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust, University of Otago, important local associates such as Penguin Place and Penguin Rescue, community groups and volunteers.

Experts team up on study to save endangered African penguins

SOUTH AFRICA – With less than 25,000 breeding pairs in existence today, it is an uphill battle for South Africa's African penguin. The 60% drop in their population since 2001 has put them on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's endangered species list. In some colonies, the drop in population has been as high as 80%. Competition with fisheries, oil spills, climate change, diseases and predators are all contributing factors in their dramatic decline.

African penguins.
Photo credit: Ralph E.T. Vanstreels, D.V.M., Ph.D

To preserve this species and optimise rehabilitation efforts, epidemiologist Adam Schaefer from Florida Atlantic University in the USA joined forces with scientists Nola Parsons and Ralph Vanstreels from the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB). The facility, located near Cape Town, South Africa, receives more than 900 African penguins for rehabilitation each year. While the success rate for the overall release of these penguins back into the wild is about 75%, limited data exists on the factors that contribute to their successful rehabilitation.

To better understand how to improve the rehabilitation of African penguins, the researchers conducted a first-of-its-kind study on prognostic health indicators such as body mass, blood analysis, and infectious disease exposure. For the study, they analysed 3,657 adult African penguins that were admitted to the SANCCOB facility for rehabilitation between 2002 and 2013.

Penguins' calls are influenced by their habitat

AUSTRALIA – Birds use vocalisations to attract mates, defend territories and recognise fellow members of their species. But while we know a lot about how variations in vocalisations play out between populations of songbirds, it’s far less clear how this variation affects birds such as penguins in which calls are inherited.

A little penguin. Photo credit: D. Colombelli-Négrel

A new study from The Auk: Ornithological Advances examined differences in the calls of little penguins – nocturnal birds for whom vocalisations are more important that visual signals – from four colonies in Australia. It found that disparities in habitat, rather than geographic isolation or other factors, seem to be the key driver of variation in the sounds these birds use to communicate.

Diane Colombelli-Négrel and Rachel Smale of Flinders University recorded calls from four little penguin populations across a small area of South Australia, one of which had previously been shown to have subtle genetic differences from the other three. They then used playback experiments to test penguins’ ability to distinguish between calls from different colonies.

A first look at geographic variation in gentoo penguin calls

Many birds use sound to attract mates and defend territories – vocal communication is central to their lives. Penguins are no exception, but we know little about how or why penguin vocalisations vary geographically between isolated populations.

Gentoo penguin calling. Credit: M Lynch.

A new study from The Auk: Ornithological Advances takes a broad look at vocalisations across the range of gentoo penguins. It concludes that while their calls do vary from place to place, we still have a lot to learn about the processes at work.

The gentoo penguin’s “ecstatic” call, consisting of repeated pairs of short syllables, is used to attract and contact mates. Maureen Lynch and her PhD advisor Dr Heather Lynch (no relation) of Stony Brook University recorded ecstatic calls at 22 gentoo penguin colonies across the Antarctic Peninsula, southern Argentina and nearby islands.

They found variation in call frequency and duration both within and between colonies, but saw no clear patterns based on latitude, region or subspecies. An algorithm based on their data was able to classify calls to correct colonies better than random, but with a high error rate.

Penguin-mounted video captures gastronomic close encounters of the gelatinous kind

SOUTHERN OCEANS – Footage from penguin-mounted mini video recorders shows four species of penguin eating jellyfish and other gelatinous animals, a food source penguins were not previously believed to eat. Scientists reported the findings this month in the Ecological Society of America's peer-reviewed journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.

Video logs confirmed that penguins targeted gelatinous animals for meals  – the birds did not merely ingest them accidentally while aiming for fish or other prey. Connecting this link in the food web helps ecologists understand the ecological niche of "gelata", a group the authors have defined based on shared gelatinous physique and ocean habitat, though it includes organisms from very different branches of the tree of life.