New Zealand penguins in crisis

NEW ZEALAND – The world’s threatened penguin species live in New Zealand and yet there is no co-ordinated government plan to protect them, New Zealand conservation organisation Forest & Bird has said.

Forest & Bird is joining a global Protect a Penguin campaign to help save penguins and is calling for a national recovery plan to protect New Zealand’s struggling penguin species.

The world’s penguins are in crisis with 10 of out of 18 species at risk of being wiped out. Five of these threatened species live and breed on New Zealand’s mainland and sub-Antarctic islands.

"We are urging the New Zealand government to establish a national Penguin Recovery Group, administered by the Department of Conservation. This group, similar to the very successful Kiwi Recovery Group, would facilitate a more coordinated and collaborative approach to the conservation of all our penguins," said Forest & Bird's CE Kevin Hague.

Penguins reveal unknown swimming talents

Rockhopper penguins on Campbell Island
Credit: Kyle Morrison

NEW ZEALAND – The remarkable long distance swimming abilities of penguins have impressed NIWA scientists who have tracked almost 100 birds over winter in the Southern Ocean.

Until now, no one knew where the sub-Antarctic rockhopper and Snares penguins went while they were at sea between April and October each year.

However, an ingenious tagging project, led by NIWA seabird ecologist Dr David Thompson, has found the penguins travelled more than 15,000 km in six months.

“If they are constantly moving this averages out at about 100 km a day but you also have to add on to that the distances covered vertically as the birds dive to capture food,” Dr Thompson said.

Penguin parents' inability to share roles increases their vulnerability to climate change

Crested penguin feeding its chick.
Photo credit: Kyle Morrison

NEW ZEALAND - The fixed division of labour between crested penguin parents increases their chicks' vulnerability to food shortages made ever more common by climate change.

Penguin parents have been unable to adapt their habits to the challenges of increasingly frequent years of limited food supply. As a result, they will become further threatened by extinction, said Kyle Morrison of Massey University and the National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research, who led a study published in Springer's journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.

Genetic evidence leaves sour and salty taste in penguins' mouths

King penguin.
Credit: Jianzhi "George" Zhang

Penguins apparently can't enjoy or even detect the savoury taste of the fish they eat or the sweet taste of fruit. 

A new analysis of genetic evidence reported in the Cell Press journal Current Biology this week suggests that penguins have lost three of the five basic tastes over evolutionary time. For them, it appears, food comes in only two flavours: salty and sour.

Many other birds can't taste sweet things either. But they do have receptors for detecting bitter and umami (or meaty) flavours.

"Penguins eat fish, so you would guess that they need the umami receptor genes, but for some reason they don't have them," said Jianzhi "George" Zhang of the University of Michigan, one of the authors of the study.

"These findings are surprising and puzzling, and we do not have a good explanation for them. But we have a few ideas." 

Scientists set to spy on rockhopper penguins

Rockhopper penguins at Campbell Island.
Credit: Paul Sagar, NIWA.

NEW ZEALAND - Scientists are poised to solve a mystery: where do rockhopper penguins breeding in New Zealand's sub-Antarctic go during the winter?

NIWA scientists have successfully secured a grant from National Geographic in the United States which will enable a research team to embark on a dedicated trip to Campbell Island, where the penguins breed and moult. There the scientists will deploy 88 miniaturised tracking tags on the penguins' legs before the birds depart in April for the winter.

The tracking tags will be retrieved at the start of the following breeding season in October 2013.

The data obtained from the tags will, for the first time, shed light on the winter movements, distribution and habitat use of rockhopper penguins in New Zealand's sub-Antarctic.

"We don't know where the penguins go during winter," said NIWA scientist Dr David Thompson.

"It could be a crucial stage in the breeding cycle for them. To successfully raise chicks, they need to come back to Campbell Island at the start of the breeding season in good condition. If they have a bad winter, they will come back to Campbell Island in poor condition.

"This stage of the annual cycle of the birds is likely to be very significant. To know nothing about where this stage takes place is a crucial gap in our understanding of the factors affecting the penguin populations."

So where might the penguins go? Dr Thompson doesn't think it will be too far.

"I suspect they don't go too far south, nor are they likely to go too far north. They probably stay at the same latitude, but disperse away from the island, spending that time feeding and regaining condition."

Between 1942 and 1985, the rockhopper penguin population at Campbell Island declined by about 94%, from approximately 800,000 breeding pairs to just 51,000 pairs. The decline has continued since the mid-1980s.

"They are unlikely to become extinct, in the near future, but this represents a massive decline," said Dr Thompson.

One theory is that the population crash is the result of changes in the penguin's diet, but Dr Thompson doesn't think this is the case.

"We don't think that they have changed their diet. We think there is just less food ... They have quite a broad diet.

"It's thought that fluctuations in sea temperatures may have led to a reduction in the abundance or availability of their prey," he said.

Source
Scientists set to spy on rockhopper penguins, 12 June 2012, NIWA

Penguins pooh-pooh panda fans

Suffering from "monochrome jealousy"? A rockhopper
penguin at Edinburgh Zoo. Photo credit: purplegrum.
Some rights reserved.

UNITED KINGDOM - The arrival of pandas Tian Tian and Yang Guang at Edinburgh Zoo in December caused great excitement among the city's human inhabitants, but not all the locals seem to be as happy with the zoo's new residents.

The rockhopper penguins' enclosure borders that of the pandas, and visitors queuing to see the black-and-white mammals are being hit by penguin droppings as the inquisitive black-and-white birds watch the goings-on below.

The zoo's director of business operations, Gary Wilson, told the media, "Our rockhopper penguins in particular have been watching the events at the panda enclosure below with great interest, ever since work started on the enclosure.

"Extremely curious birds, they often gather next to the wall to see what's happening below. We're hoping it's not a case of monochrome jealousy, but one or two of our rockhoppers seem to have had surprisingly good aim."

The zoo is now considering installing a glass panel to protect the visitors.

Source
Panda fans hit by penguin droppings, 20 December 2011, Press Association

Rockhoppers rock in at no. 1 in the Falkland Islands

The swagger of a champion: Falkland
Islands rockhopper penguin.
Photo credit: Liam Q.
Some rights reserved.

FALKLAND ISLANDS - The spiky-feathered rockhopper has been crowned the Falklands' most-loved penguin species according to a recent Facebook poll conducted by the Falkland Islands Tourist Board.

Almost half the voters chose the rockhopper as their favourite, followed by the king penguin (30%) and the gentoo (16%). There are two other penguin species on the islands: Magellanic and macaroni.

The poll was conducted among the Tourist Board's Facebook fans over a two-week period and received 1,467 votes from around the world.

The majority of those who participated - 73% - said that wildlife was the Falklands' biggest draw. Given this result, it is no surprise that 63% said that birdwatchers and nature enthusiasts would be the type of traveller likely to enjoy the Falklands the most.

“Wildlife clearly is high on people’s travel agenda," said Paul Trowell, general manager for the Falkland Islands Tourist Board. "Visitors to the Falklands are guaranteed a personal, one-on-one experience with wildlife, and at times be surrounded by more penguins than people!"  Clearly a draw for any penguin lover!

Sources
Nature lovers love the Falklands, 8 August 2011, Falkland Islands Tourist Board
@FITBTourism on Twitter, accessed at 6:38 PM on 17 August 2011 (UK time)