Breeding pairs of emperor penguins do not have breeding territories. Thus, they protect their expecting mates by staying with them until the egg is laid and transferred to the male for incubation. It is during this period that mating penguins refrain from verbal communication, so that unpaired penguins do not disrupt them. During the incubation period, males must huddle with hundreds alike to conserve energy and heat before breaking up and huddle again with other penguins. It is also during this dispersion that mates may get separated. With the inability to verbally communicate, how are they able to find each other among the chaos? A study conducted by André Ancel and colleagues from the Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien à Strasbourg in France has found that pairs of breeding penguins stay in their partner's visual field at all times.This was observed by attaching data recording devices on four breeding pairs from a colony of 3,000 penguins. This study concluded that pairs huddled close to each other 84% of the time, with each leaving the huddle within minutes of each other. This leaves almost no room for separation.
Source:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/17/science/17obhuddle.html?_r=2
Posted by Vanessa Raphaël (week 3)
It is interesting that there is a specific time when a mating pair refrain from communicating. How would they be interrupted by unpaired penguins?
ReplyDeleteWhere they go to get food must be close by for them to not lose sight of eachother. Could they possibly use other cues besides vocal to find their mates if they get separated?
-Tricia Carlson
I enjoyed this post. I find penguins very interesting. I didn't know how difficult it was for mated pairs of penguins to be able to find each other. Why would using verbal communication between pairs cause disruption from unmated pairs? Also, what other forms of communication do they have when they are refraining from verbal communication?
ReplyDeletePosted by Sarah Benjamin
I was under the impression that Emperor Penguin males stayed behind during the worst part of the weather while the females go out and hunt for months. If this is the case then they do get separated for a long period of time and must come back and find their mate and newly hatched chick. Did the study mention the length of the non communication period?
ReplyDelete-Sara Ku
Wow, this post is really cute. A mate that can stay within visual range is amazing, humans cannot even get their children to do that! I find the amazing part to be the fact that no communication signals were even necessary, they chose to be silent and visual for the sake of their relationship, signifigant other and new child. Amongst the 3,000 penguins of the colony and every penguin looking so similar, its quite the feat.
ReplyDeleteWhen the male penguin takes over the job of incubation, does the female penguin take on the role of hunting and gathering for food? It sounds like a role reversal happening.
Commented by Amanda Lee
This seems like a very interesting article. Do they have any ideas as to why communication between pairs would be disrupted by unpaired penguins? I found it interesting that mated pairs remain in each others field of vision.
ReplyDelete-Emily Crete
Wow really? Why do you think they dont verbal communicate? Is it because they can't physically do it? Or is it because they aren't allowed to because it would signify that they are available to mate?
ReplyDeleteAlex Bourdois
i found this to be a little funny, and i wish some of my relationships were more like it. with that said, i am a little amazed that during the period of protection these emperor penguins do not verbalaly communicate. i feel like this would be an important time for the penguins to communicate if they wanted to insure a successful upbringing. this was an awesome article, good job.
ReplyDelete-Stephen Chiricosta