African penguins are going extinct. Here’s what we’re learning about them.
Photo by Kelsey Kehm
Climate Related to Nest Stealing in African Penguin, Study Finds
Some of my favorite research to read on penguins are case studies because they provide a glimpse of how weird penguin behavior can get. Occasionally, a few penguins in a population might display a behavior they’re not supposed to do. In this case, a few African penguins began stealing one another’s nests, also known as nest usurpation, in response to extreme weather changes [1]. When…
Throwback Thursday: The Study that First Explored Penguin Behavior
Hey readers! I know that reading too much about threats to an endangered species can sometimes make you feel helpless, so I thought I’d write a special lighthearted blog. Throwback Thursday goes back in time to examine ecological and behavioral research that remains relevant today. In 1973 through 1976, researchers Eggleton and Siegfried traveled to islands off the South African coast to observe African penguins in their natural habitat. They composed an ethogram,…
IUCN Names Most Vulnerable Penguin Species, Offers Conservation Solutions
I’m always interested to see how penguins worldwide are faring, especially since it can be hard to determine which penguin species are most at risk. Most of the time, I live in an African penguin bubble, only researching similar species when I can’t find anything relevant to my own research. However, I recently stumbled across a rare gem – the International…
No-Contact Animal Ambassador Programs Don’t Harm African Penguins
When I conducted my research at the Lehigh Valley Zoo, sometimes I’d notice a zookeeper hop the fence into the exhibit, coax an African penguin into a carrier, and carry him off, only to come back 30 to 60 minutes later. I went on with my data collection, but I knew that the zookeeper had taken the penguin…
Sex Biased Survival Influences Magellanic Penguin Population
Why am I writing about Magellanic penguins from South America now instead of African penguins? For one thing, Magellanic penguins’ conservation status is near threatened, so we need to better understand them if we want to prevent further population declines. More importantly, African and Magellanic penguins are extremely close relatives, so research findings in one species may be applicable to the other. In a recent study, researchers…
Study Seeks to Preserve African Penguins by Identifying Their Predators
Many of the blogs that I have posted before discussed the human influence on the decline of the African penguin population. So, imagine my surprise when I came across a study that examines the influence of natural predators on mainland African penguin colonies. For once, humans aren’t the villain in this study. Instead, the bad guys are…
Avian Influenza Impacts Namibia’s African Penguin Population
In my blog post last week, I said that the population of African penguins in Namibia is relatively stable compared to those in South Africa. However, that doesn’t mean that the Namibia population is immune from environmental stressors, like illness. From mid-December 2018 to mid-February 2019, a devastating disease plagued the African penguin population on Halifax Island, Namibia. Although…
The Penguin Researcher 