Read the article here.
King Penguins chicks must do one thing in order to survive in the harsh Arctic climate: communicate. When a chick is old enough to self-thermoregulate, both parents leave the chick in a specific "rendezvous zone" with a group of chicks. It is of the utmost importance that the chick stays there. The parents will return to feed the chick and with several hundred identical chicks in a colony, the only way to know which chick is the right one is through sound. Parents and chicks are extremely efficient in identifying each other based on individual vocalizations (which are unique to each bird), but this is only successful when the parent is within 8 meters of the chick (the hearing distance of an adult King Penguin). If a chick strays or is displaced further than 8 meters from the "rendezvous zone", then it will not be fed and will die of starvation.
Chicks could be displaced for a number of reasons, including weather and disturbances from predators. It is vital that a chick has the ability to find its way back to the "rendezvous area" after being displaced for any reason. Thus, they have developed the ability to find their way back. In an experiment by Nesterova, Mardon, and Bonadonna, several chicks were taken from their "rendezvous zone" and released 100 meters south of their colonies. Two experiments were performed to assess what senses the chicks used to relocate their "rendezvous zones".
The first experiment was done in a large arena that had a barrier that prevented a view of the colony. The chicks were released and it was recorded where the chick spent the most time in the arena. It was noted that the chick spent most time in the northern half of the arena (closest to the colony), and it is hypothesized that this is because of olfactory and auditory stimuli carried by the wind from the colony.
The second experiment involved letting the chicks go and observing where they walked. Most chicks went directly back to their "rendezvous zones" and stopped within meters of where they were captured. It is hypothesized that this is because the chicks recognized their landscape and the position of the sun to orient themselves and figure out where their "rendezvous zones" were located.
More experiments will need to be performed to better understand how the chicks find their way back. Is auditory or olfactory stimuli more important? Is this a learned or innate behavior? With the ground work laid down by this experiment, many more questions surface, but new experiments can be created to answer them.
In order for a King Penguin chick to communicate with its parents, it must be in the specific spot where it was last fed. If displaced from this spot, the chick must find its way back in order to survive. The experiments performed in this article demonstrate that at a young age chicks know their surroundings well enough to find their way back after displacement. They know the importance of communication.
Posted by "Tricia Carlson" (1)
Gotta love penguins. Can you give some more detail about the penguin calls? How do they differ from family to family? For example, do they have different note patterns or frequencies, or does each individual penguin have their own unique "voice?"
ReplyDeleteAs for using the sun to orient themselves: I've heard it can be very difficult to tell where the sun is in the arctic environment, can they see polarized light?
Interesting subject, but a couple more details would really help.
Posted by Deysha Rivera
This is amazing to believe! It's almost as if each penguin has a name of its own to answer to. To the human eye all King penguins look the same, do they not? Whereas humans are diverse in every which way. How are King penguins different from one another, are they small or big differences? Children are really similar in that they can recognize parental figures voices with accuracy. Baby penguins must become very familiar with their parents voices in order to be able to survive. I am in awe of the animal kingdom world, animals seem to have developed years and years of experience when it comes to rearing their offspring and continuing their population.
ReplyDeleteDo penguins other than the King ones work in this manner when it comes to feeding their chicks? Do chicks eat regurgitated food just as most bird species do?
Posted By Amanda Lee
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI found this topic of innate navigational and orientational skills very interesting. After reading the article, I learned that these chicks mainly used their sense of sight and therefore fared better during the day than at night. However it would be interesting to learn how much they actually rely on their secondary senses (auditory or olfactory) and which secondary sense they rely on the most. Because of the selection factors involved, these seemingly innate skills are valuable in surviving in the unforgiving Antarctic. (I re posted this comment and deleted the flawed one above)
ReplyDeletePosted by Alliam Ortiz
It is amazing how they can find their way back using the sun to orient themselves. Is this something that they learned or just instinctively knew? Also, if they wander off and the parents come back to find their chick missing will they go in search of them? You said that they could only be heard up to 8 meters away, but is it possible for the parents to use their olfactory senses to lead them in the right direction until vocalizations can be heard? Since King Penguins only get one shot a year to reproduce it would make sense for them to have another way to communicate when they are out of range of hearing each other.
ReplyDelete-Tara Quist
This is really an awesome adaptation to a harsh reality. When there are so many individuals in a single, freezing and therefore crowded, place it is clearly a necessity to King Penguins that each individual can be identified by the noise they make.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how humans would test at individual recognition by voice? Have there been studies about this?
-Jillian O'Keefe