King Penguins breed en masse at sub-Antarctic islands, with most pairs occurring in vast, sprawling colonies.
How seabirds find – and keep – their mates in these teeming crowds that sometimes number tens of thousands of birds has long fascinated biologists. King Penguins face an additional problem compared to most seabirds because they lack a fixed nest site. Adults incubate on their feet and so a partner could shuffle some distance from where it was entrusted with the precious egg at the end of the previous incubation shift.
Before a King Penguin can attempt to breed, it obviously needs to find a mate. A recent paper by a group of French researchers (Kriesell et al. 2018; Ibis, doi: 10.1111/ibi.12577) explored how King Penguins tell potential mates from rivals.
In this species, size differences are at best subtle and, like most seabirds, it lacks obvious plumage differences between the sexes. Some studies have claimed to detect sex-specific differences in the penguins’ striking orange head patterns, but Kriesell and colleagues found no such variances. The females are on average slightly smaller than the males, with bill length providing the best clue to sex, correctly identifying almost 80 per cent of individuals.
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
EXPLORING NEW HORIZONS
Keith Barnes, co-author of the new Field Guide to Birds of Greater Southern Africa, chats about the long-neglected birding regions just north of the Kunene and Zambezi, getting back to watching birds and the vulture that changed his life.
footloose IN FYNBOS
The Walker Bay Diversity Trail is a leisurely hike with a multitude of flowers, feathers and flavours along the way.
Living forwards
How photographing birds helps me face adversity
CAPE crusade
The Cape Bird Club/City of Cape Town Birding Big Year Challenge
water & WINGS
WATER IS LIFE. As wildlife photographer Greg du Toit knows better than most.
winter wanderer
as summer becomes a memory in the south, the skies are a little quieter as the migrants have returned to the warming north. But one bird endemic to the southern African region takes its own little winter journey.
when perfect isn't enough
Egg signatures and forgeries in the cuckoo-drongo arms race
Southern SIGHTINGS
The late summer period naturally started quietening down after the midsummer excitement, but there were still some classy rarities on offer for birders all over the subregion. As always, none of the records included here have been adjudicated by any of the subregion's Rarities Committees.
flood impact on wetland birds
One of the features of a warming planet is increasingly erratic rainfall; years of drought followed by devastating floods. Fortunately, many waterbirds are pre-adapted to cope with such extremes, especially in southern Africa where they have evolved to exploit episodic rainfall events in semi-arid and arid regions. But how do waterbirds respond to floods in areas where rainfall - and access to water - is more predictable? Peter Ryan explores the consequences of recent floods on the birds of the Western Cape's Olifants River valley.
a star is born
It’s every producer’s dream to plan a wildlife television series and pick the right characters before filming.
