A Conversation With Dee Boersma

SOCIALIZING Dee Boersma, shown in 1996, has been studying Magellanic penguins in Argentina since 1982.

A Conversation With Dee Boersma
William Conway/Wildlife Conservation Society

Q. HOW DID THE PENGUIN PROJECT BEGIN?

A. In the early 1980s, a Japanese company went to the Argentine government and said, “We’d like a concession to harvest your penguins and turn them into oil, protein and gloves.” There was a public outcry. This was during a military dictatorship when dissidents were being thrown into the ocean from airplanes. And yet people said, “We object to having our penguins harvested.”

So the military regime did what any government facing a controversy might do — they said, “Let’s have a study.” Not long after that, the Wildlife Conservation Society entered into an agreement with the Argentine Office of Tourism and the Province of Chubut to set up a research project at Punta Tombo where there was the world’s largest colony of Magellanic penguins. Once that agreement was in place, it was the end of the concession idea.

I came to Punta Tombo in 1982 to determine how many penguins were actually there. I didn’t think I’d be doing a long-term study of them. But we didn’t know how long wild penguins lived. With time, we discovered that penguins are quite long-lived, 30 years, more. So I’ve ended up going to Argentina every year since 1982.

Q. WHAT DOES YOUR RESEARCH INVOLVE?

A. I’m a kind of census taker of the 200,000 breeding pairs of penguins at Punta Tombo. I track who is at home, who gets to mate, where the penguins go for the meals, their health, their behaviors.

On a typical day, I’ll get up before dawn. The penguins rise early, but they spend the morning calling to each other from their nests and socializing. Around 8 or 9, they head down to the beach. Once they’re out, we check the nests, see who’s stayed behind, weigh the babies, band them, and we put satellite tags on some birds so we can track them while they’re swimming.

I’m interested in where they go. Through the tagging we’ve been able to show that in the last decade, the birds are swimming about 25 miles further in search of food. They’re having trouble finding enough fish to eat. That costs a penguin energy and time while their mate is sitting on the egg, starving. So when they return to the nest to relieve their mate, they arrive in poorer body condition. And then, the mates also have to go farther to find food.

These penguins are now laying eggs on the average three days later in the season then they did a decade ago. That means that the chicks may leave for sea at more inopportune times, when fish may not be close to the colony. Many will not survive to come back and breed. The Punta Tombo colony has declined 22 percent since 1987. That’s a lot. This type of penguin is considered near-threatened. Of the 17 different penguin species, 12 are suffering rapid decreases in numbers.

Q. Why is this decline occurring among the Magellanic penguins?

A. Changes in the availability and abundance of prey. And we think that’s due to both climate change and exploitation of the penguins’ food sources by commercial fisheries.

There’s also oil pollution in the South Atlantic. There’s dumping from ships. For a while in the 1980s, 80 percent of the dead penguins found along the coast were covered in oil. In 1994, we were able to get the Chubut authorities to move the oil tanker lanes further from the coast. That’s helped.

But as the birds take these longer migrations in search of food, they sometimes find themselves outside of Chubut’s protected areas. Some of our tagged penguins have been located as far north as Brazil. When they’re in the waters of northern Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil, where the laws against oil dumping are less enforced, they’re encountering problems.

Q. WHAT ARE THE POLICY IMPLICATIONS OF YOUR RESEARCH?

A. We’re seeing that conservation areas that we’ve set up to protect penguins are not going to work. If we’re going have penguins, I think we are going to have to do ocean zoning and try to manage people.

I also think that our information about the penguins’ migratory patterns means we must try to anticipate the next place they might move to. Right now they are on public land in Punta Tombo, but as the birds look for new food sources, they might end up colonizing beaches that are privately owned. What then?

The big thing is that penguins are showing us that climate change has already happened. The birds are trying to adapt. But evolution is not fast enough to allow them to do that, over the long term.

Q. THE 2005 DOCUMENTARY FILM “THE MARCH OF THE PENGUINS” WAS A REMARKABLE INTERNATIONAL SUCCESS. DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHY?

A. Because people can identify with penguins. These birds are curious. They walk upright. They dress well. They’re highly social. They know their neighbors. They mate. And some of them even get divorced.

Q. HOW CAN YOU KNOW THAT?

A. When we do our census, we find individuals with mates other than those they had the year before — and they are living within meters of the old mates. That’s more likely to happen, by the way, if the couple has failed at raising a chick; they’ll move to another mate.

And yet, we find other pairs with great fidelity. We have one pair that stayed together for 16 years. What’s really interesting is that if the penguins keep the same mate, they raise more chicks. Fidelity gives them greater evolutionary success.

P. Dee Boersma, a University of Washington conservation biologist, is the Jane Goodall of penguins. As director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Penguin Project, Dr. Boersma, 62, has spent the last quarter of a century studying the behaviors of some 40,000 Magellanic penguins, inhabitants of one stretch of beach in southern Argentina. We spoke at last month’s American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Chicago and again later by telephone. An edited version of the interview follows.

Story and image courtesy of the NY Times @
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/31/science/earth/31conv.html?_r=1&em

Humboldt penguin (Spheniscus humboldti)

Humboldt penguin (Spheniscus humboldti)

Facts
Also known as: Peruvian penguin
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Chordata
Class Aves
Order Sphenisciformes
Family Spheniscidae
Genus Spheniscus (1)
Size Length: 65 cm (2)
Average weight: 4 kg (3)

Status

Classified as Vulnerable (VU B2abcde+3bc, C1) on the IUCN Red List 2003 (1). Listed on Appendix I of CITES (4) and on Appendix I of the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS or Bonn Convention) (5).

Description

Humboldt penguins, named after the cold current of water running from the Antarctic to the equator along the west coast of South America (itself named after the German naturalist Friedrich Humboldt), are a medium-sized penguin. They have proportionately large heads, black backs and tails, and a black band across the chest that runs down the body beneath the flippers to the black feet. The face is also black, but separated from the head and neck by a white border. The strong bill is black with a white band near the tip and the lower mandible has a pink fleshy-coloured base extending to the front of the eyes (6). Females are slightly smaller that the males but are otherwise similar. Juvenile birds are predominantly slate grey across the head and back, white at the front, and lack the bold double stripe of the adults (6).

Range

This species is found along the coasts of Peru and Chile within the reaches of the Humboldt Current. Some birds have been recorded as vagrants northwards off Columbia (2). There are also isolated colonies further to the south on the Punihuil Islands
Humboldt penguins nest on rocky coasts and islands with suitable terrain for constructing nest burrows (2).

Biology

These penguins can be found in their breeding colonies throughout the year although the main breeding seasons are from March to April and September to October, depending on the location. The birds dig burrows into the sand or guano cliffs, or find small crevices in which to lay the eggs. Two eggs are laid over a period of 2-4 days, incubation taking between 40 and 42 days, with both adult birds sharing nest duties. The chicks usually hatch two days apart and are fed by both adults once they have acquired their first thick downy coats (3).

Chicks rarely leave their nest scrape until they are fledged at about 12 weeks. They then fend for themselves along the coast for several months before returning to establish their own nests, often within the same colony where they were reared. They reach maturity at the age of two years (3).

Humboldt penguins exploit the cold waters off the South American west coast for food. The Humboldt Current flows northwards from Antarctica, and provides a rich harvest of fish, particularly anchovies, but the birds also feed on other fish species, krill and squid. Although they can reach depths of 150 metres, the birds rarely descend deeper than 60 metres (3).

These penguins have been popular exhibits in zoos for many years and have been known to live for up to 30 years in captivity. They rarely reach this age in the wild (3).

Threats

The principal risks to Humboldt penguins come from human over-harvesting of the fish stocks, especially anchovies, and exploiting the birds' guano beds, the mineral-rich guano being used as fertiliser. Removal of the guano deprives the birds from constructing nest burrows and leaves the eggs and chicks vulnerable to weather and predators (3).

On the mainland nesting sites, wild dogs take eggs, chicks and even adult birds. Natural predators on land include foxes and caracaras (a large native hawk), whilst in the water the penguins fall prey to fur seals, sharks and whales. A more alarming trend over recent decades has been the effects of El Niño-related events. This is known to affect penguin numbers in two ways; by displacing the Humboldt Current with warmer, less food-rich water, and raising severe storms that can wash out the nesting colonies (3). There are also cases of birds being drowned in fishing nests and they are constantly at risk from marine pollution (3).

Conservation

Following a series of disastrous breeding years, which included two El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events, a population and habitat viability survey was carried out in 1998 on the Humboldt penguin. This concluded that, using figures for current breeding trends and estimating a world population of between 3,300 and 12,000 breeding pairs, the species was likely to become extinct within the next century (2). Legislation to assist the recovery of the Humboldt penguin has been passed in Chile, including a 30 year moratorium on killing or capturing the birds, and protection of the four principal breeding colonies. In Peru, the major colonies are also protected and the extraction of guano is managed by government (2).

Further proposed conservation targets to save this species include the creation of marine nature reserves around the main breeding grounds, greater care over the extraction of guano, reducing the fish harvests during ENSO events and setting up ‘awareness' programmes to limit the hunting of penguins and accidental entanglement (by-catch) in fishing nets (2).

Further Information

International Penguin Conservation:
http://www.penguins.cl/humboldt-penguins.htm

References

1. IUCN Red List (April, 2004)
http://www.redlist.org
2. Capper, D.R. and Statterfield, A.J. (2000) Threatened birds of the world. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona and Birdlife International, Cambridge.
3. International Penguin Conservation (April, 2004)
http://www.penguins.cl/humboldt-penguins.htm
4. CITES (April, 2004)
http://www.cites.org
5. Convention on Migratory Species (April, 2004)
http://www.unep-wcmc.org/cms/
6. Soper, T. and Sparks, J. (1968) Penguins. David and Charles, Newton Abbott.

Info and images courtesy of ARKive@
http://www.arkive.org/humboldt-penguin/spheniscus-humboldti/info.html

Friday Videos!

Gentoo penguin (Pygoscelis papua)

Gentoo penguin (Pygoscelis papua)

Facts

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Chordata
Class Aves
Order Sphenisciformes
Family Spheniscidae
Genus Pygoscelis (1)
Size Height: 73 – 81 cm (2)
Male weight: 4.9 – 8.5 kg (3)
Female weight: 4.5 – 8.2 kg (3)

Status

Classified as Near Threatened (NT) on the IUCN Red List 2007 (1).

Description

This charismatic marine bird is easily distinguished from other penguins by its bright orange-red bill and the conspicuous white patches above each eye (3). These white patches, which usually meet across the crown, contrast highly with the black head and throat, but there may also be a scattering of white feathers on the head. The white underparts are sharply separated from the penguin's bluish-black back, which appears browner as the feathers become worn (3). The gentoo penguin has pale whitish-pink webbed feet and a fairly long tail - the most prominent tail of all penguins (2) (3) (4). As the gentoo penguin waddles along on land, its tail sticks out behind, sweeping from side to side, hence the scientific name Pygoscelis, which means ‘brush-tailed' (4). The gentoo penguin calls in a variety of ways, but the most frequently heard is a loud trumpeting which is emitted with its head thrown back (5).

Range

The gentoo penguin has a circumpolar distribution, breeding on sub-Antarctic Islands and the Antarctic peninsula (3). Two subspecies of the gentoo penguin are recognised (2): Pygoscelis papua papua breeds mainly on the Falkland Islands and South Georgia, Kerugulen, Heard, Macquarie and Staten Islands, while Pygoscelis papua ellsworthi breeds on the Antarctic Peninsula, South Shetland Island, South Orkney and South Sandwich Island (3). The gentoo's non-breeding range is not fully known, but they have been found as far north as New Zealand, Australia and Argentina (3).

Habitat

This marine bird can be found searching for food in inshore waters (2). When breeding, the gentoo penguin favours flat ground (2), either close to the coast or a considerable distance inland (3), where it nests in rocky areas, sometimes amongst vegetation (2).

Biology

A gregarious bird, but less so than some other penguin species (2), the gentoo can form breeding colonies ranging from thirty to thousands of pairs (5). Arriving at suitable nesting ground between June and November (the exact date depending on the location) (2), each pair of penguins will set about the task of constructing a nest from stones, tussock grass and moss (2). The penguins tear up plants to use as nest material and fertilise the ground with their droppings, resulting in grass growing well the subsequent year, hence their favourable reputation with sheep farmers (5).

Into these nests two white, spherical eggs are laid, which are incubated by both the male and female for 31 to 39 days (2). The penguin chicks fledge after 85 to 117 days, but continue to be fed by their parents for a further 5 to 50 days. Gentoo penguins, which reach sexual maturity at the age of two years (2), are not only faithful to certain nest sites, with most returning to the previous year's nest, but they are also loyal to breeding partners, with many forming long-lasting pair bonds (3).

Walking with a rather comedic, waddling gait on land, the gentoo penguin shows its true talents when in the water. With its stream-lined body and ‘flippers' that provide effective propulsion through the water (6), the gentoo penguin dives deep into the ocean in pursuit of its prey, and is capable of reaching impressive depths of up to 170 metres (3). The exact diet of the gentoo penguin varies depending on location, but can include Atlantic krill, other crustaceans, fish, cephalopods and polychaetes (2).

Threats

Although not globally threatened with extinction, some gentoo penguin colonies have declined (1). While those on the Antarctic Peninsula appear to be increasing overall, populations on sub-Antarctic islands may have decreased considerably (1). For example, populations on Bird Island (South Georgia) have decreased by around 67 percent since 1980 (1). In the past, some colonies were affected by the collection of eggs for human consumption and the hunting of adults for their oil (2). Today, possible reasons behind population declines include local pollution, interaction with fisheries, and disturbance by humans (1); colonies on Kerguelen Island and Possession Island are said to have been disturbed by the presence of scientific bases (2).

Conservation

The gentoo penguin breeds in a number of protected areas, including MacQuarie Island and Heard Island, which are both Natural World Heritage Sites (7), and Prince Edward Islands Special Nature Reserve (8). To prevent the charming gentoo becoming threatened with extinction, the global bird conservation organization BirdLife International have recommended that efforts need to be made to avoid any disturbance of breeding colonies, and that colonies should be subject to long-term monitoring (8).

Further Information

For further information on the conservation of penguins see:

* International Penguin Conservation Work Group:
www.penguins.cl

References

1. IUCN Red List (June, 2008)
http://www.iucnredlist.org
2. del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A. and Sargatal, J. (1992) Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 1: Ostrich to Ducks. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
3. Williams, T.D. (1995) Bird Families of the World: The Penguins. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
4. British Antarctic Survey (June, 2008)
http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/about_antarctica/wildlife/birds/penguins/gentoo.php
5. Woods, R.W. (1975) The Birds of the Falkland Islands. Anthony Nelson, Shropshire, UK.
6. Burnie, D. (2001) Animal. Dorling Kindersley, London.
7. World Database on Protected Areas (July, 2008)
http://www.unep-wcmc.org/wdpa
8. BirdLife International (July, 2008)
http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/index.html?action=SitHTMDetails.asp&sid=7176&m=0

Info and images courtesy of ARKive@
http://www.arkive.org/gentoo-penguin/pygoscelis-papua/info.html

Friday Videos!

Representative of the Wessex Formation of Fossils

Two Hesperonis

Mini Dinosaurs Prowled North America

Science News

Mini Dinosaurs Prowled North America

ScienceDaily (Mar. 17, 2009) — Massive predators like Albertosaurus and Tyrannosaurus rex may have been at the top of the food chain, but they were not the only meat-eating dinosaurs to roam North America, according to Canadian researchers who have discovered the smallest dinosaur species on the continent to date. Their work is also helping re-draw the picture of North America's ecosystem at the height of the dinosaur age 75 million years ago.

"Hesperonychus is currently the smallest dinosaur known from North America. But its discovery just emphasizes how little we actually know, and it raises the possibility that there are even smaller ones out there waiting to be found," said Nick Longrich, a paleontology research associate in the University of Calgary's Department of Biological Sciences. "Small carnivorous dinosaurs seemed to be completely absent from the environment, which seemed bizarre because today the small carnivores outnumber the big ones," he said. "It turns out that they were here and they played a more important role in the ecosystem than we realized. So for the past 100 years, we've completely overlooked a major part of North America's dinosaur community."

In a paper published March 16 in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Longrich and University of Alberta paleontologist Philip Currie describe a new genus of carnivorous dinosaur that was smaller than a modern housecat and likely hunted insects, small mammals and other prey through the swamps and forests of the late Cretaceous period in southeastern Alberta, Canada. Weighing approximately two kilograms and standing about 50 centimetres tall, Hesperonychus elizabethae resembled a miniature version of the famous bipedal predator Velociraptor, to which it was closely related. Hesperonychus ran about on two legs and had razor-like claws and an enlarged sickle-shaped claw on its second toe. It had a slender build and slender head with dagger-like teeth.

"It was half the size of a domestic cat and probably hunted and ate whatever it could for its size – insects, mammals, amphibians and maybe even baby dinosaurs," Longrich said. "It probably spent most of its time close to the ground searching through the marshes and forests that characterized the area at the end of the Cretaceous."

Fossilized remains of Hesperonychus, which means “western claw,” were collected in 1982 from several locations including Dinosaur Provincial Park. The most important specimen, a well-preserved pelvis, was recovered by legendary Alberta paleontologist Elizabeth (Betsy) Nicholls, after which the species is named. Nicholls was the curator of marine reptiles at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller and earned her MSc and PhD degrees at U of C. She passed away in 2004. The fossils remained unstudied for 25 years until Longrich came across them in the University of Alberta’s collection in 2007. Longrich and Currie focused on fossilized claws and a well-preserved pelvis for their description.

"The claws were thought to come from juveniles- they were just so small. But when we studied the pelvis, we found the hip bones were fused, which would only have happened once the animal was fully grown", Longrich said. "Until now, the smallest carnivorous dinosaurs we have seen in North America have been about the size of a wolf. Judging by the amount of material that was collected, we believe animals the size of Hesperonychus must have been quite common on the landscape."

Currie and Longrich last year described the previous record-setting small North American dinosaur, a chicken-sized insectivore named Albertonykus borealis.

The discovery of Hesperonychus is the first sign of small carnivorous dinosaurs in North America and also extends the timeframe of small, birdlike dromaeosaurs known as the Microraptorinae in the fossil record by approximately 45 million years. Specimens from China have been found dating to 120 million years ago, while Hesperonychus appeared to have thrived until the end of dinosaur age in the late Cretaceous.

Journal reference:

1. Nicholas R. Longrich and Philip J. Currie. A microraptorine (Dinosauria-Dromaeosauridae) from the Late Cretaceous of North America. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2009; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0811664106

Adapted from materials provided by University of Calgary.

University of Calgary. "Mini Dinosaurs Prowled North America." ScienceDaily 17 March 2009. 18 March 2009 <http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2009/03/090316173218.htm>.

Young Dinosaurs Roamed Together, Died Together

Science News

Young Dinosaurs Roamed Together, Died Together

ScienceDaily (Mar. 16, 2009) — A herd of young birdlike dinosaurs met their death on the muddy margins of a lake some 90 million years ago, according to a team of Chinese and American paleontologists that excavated the site in the Gobi Desert in western Inner Mongolia.

The Sudden sudden death of the herd in a mud trap provides a rare snapshot of social behavior. Composed entirely of juveniles of a single species of ornithomimid dinosaur (Sinornithomimus dongi), the herd suggests that immature individuals were left to fend for themselves when adults were preoccupied with nesting or brooding.

"There were no adults or hatchlings," said Paul Sereno, professor at the University of Chicago and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence. "These youngsters were roaming around on their own," remarked Tan Lin, from the Department of Land and Resources of Inner Mongolia.

Within an exquisite pair of the skeletons, prepared for display in Sereno's lab and airlifted back to China in late February, preserve stomach stones and the animal's' last meals are preserved.

Sereno, Tan and Zhao Xijin, professor in the Chinese Academy of Sciences, led the 2001 expedition that found the fossils. Team members also included David Varricchio of Montana State University (MSU), Jeffrey Wilson of the University of Michigan and Gabrielle Lyon of Project Exploration.

"Finding a mired herd is exceedingly rare among living animals," said Varricchio, an assistant professor of paleontology at MSU. "The best examples are from hoofed mammals," such as water buffalo in Australia or feral horses in the American West, he said.

The first bones from the dinosaur herd were spotted by a Chinese geologist in 1978 at the base of a small hill in a desolate, windswept region of the Gobi Desert. Some 20 years later, a Sino-Japanese team excavated the first skeletons, naming the dinosaur Sinornithomimus ("Chinese bird mimic").

Sereno and associates then opened an expansive quarry, following one skeleton after another deep into the base of the hill. In sum, more than 25 individuals were excavated from the site. They range in age from one to seven years, as determined by the annual growth rings in their bones.

The team meticulously recorded the position of all of the bones and the details of the rock layers to try to understand how so many animals of the same species perished in one place. The skeletons showed similar exquisite preservation and were mostly facing the same direction, suggesting that they died together and over a short interval.

The details provided key evidence of an ancient tragedy. Two of the skeletons fell one right over the other. Although most of their skeletons lay on a flat horizontal plane, their hind legs were stuck deeply in the mud below. Only their hip bones were missing, which was likely the handiwork of a scavenger working over the meatiest part of the body bodies shortly after the animals died.

"These animals died a slow death in a mud trap, their flailing only serving to attract a nearby scavenger or predator," Sereno said. Usually, weathering, scavenging or transport of bone have long erased all direct evidence of the cause of death. The site provides some of the best evidence to date of the cause of death of a dinosaur.

Plunging marks in mud surrounding the skeletons recorded their failed attempts to escape. Varricchio said he was both excited and saddened by what the excavation revealed. "I was saddened because I knew how the animals had perished. It was a strange sensation and the only time I had felt that way at a dig," he said.

In addition to herd composition and behavior, the site also provides encyclopedic knowledge of even the tiniest bones in the skull and skeleton. "We even know the size of its eyeball," Sereno said. "Sinornithomimus is destined to become one of the best- understood dinosaurs in the world."

The work was funded by the National Geographic Society and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

Journal reference:

1. David J. Varricchio, Paul C. Sereno, Zhao Xi-jin, Tan Lin Jeffrey A. Wilson, and Gabrielle H. Lyon. Mud-trapped herd captures evidence of distinctive dinosaur sociality. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, December 2008 [link]

Adapted from materials provided by University of Chicago, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

University of Chicago. "Young Dinosaurs Roamed Together, Died Together." ScienceDaily 16 March 2009. 17 March 2009 <http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2009/03/090316075721.htm>.

Emperor Penguin Couples Stay Near Each Other in a Crowd

Breeding Penguin Couples Stay Close in a Crowd
By HENRY FOUNTAIN
Published: March 16, 2009

Breeding pairs of emperor penguins have a problem. They don’t have breeding territories, so they defend their partnership by staying together until the female lays its egg and transfers it to the male (who will incubate it, alone, for several months). This defense extends to their vocalizing — they remain silent until the egg is laid, so that an unpaired penguin can’t disrupt them.

Yet to keep warm and conserve energy during mating season, emperors must huddle with hundreds of other birds. Huddles form for a few hours, break up for a while and re-form again with different birds, over and over during the Antarctic winter. It’s the penguin equivalent of a mosh pit.

So how does a silent pair of emperors avoid becoming separated amid all the confusion? The answer, according to a study in The Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, is that they stick close by each other in the crowd.

André Ancel of the Hubert Curien Multidisciplinary Institute in Strasbourg, France, and colleagues attached data loggers to four breeding pairs in a colony of 3,000 emperors near Dumont d’Urville Station. The devices recorded when temperatures rose and light intensity decreased, evidence that the penguins were huddling.

The researchers found that both members of a pair participated in the same huddle 84 percent of the time, with one penguin entering or leaving the huddle within a few minutes of the other. That suggests that the mates kept in physical, or at least visual, contact almost all of the time.

Story courtesy of the NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/17/science/17obhuddle.html?_r=1

Image courtesy of Flickr

Full paper for basis of report at:
http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2009/03/06/rspb.2009.0140.abstract

Fiordland crested penguin (Eudyptes pachyrhynchus)

Fiordland crested penguin (Eudyptes pachyrhynchus)

Facts

Also known as: thick-billed penguin
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Chordata
Class Aves
Order Sphenisciformes
Family Spheniscidae
Genus Eudyptes (1)
Size Length: up to 55 cm (2)
Height: 40 cm (2)
Weight 4 kg (2)

Status

Classified as Vulnerable (VU) on the IUCN Red List 2007 (1).

Description

One of the smaller members of the penguin family, the Fiordland crested penguin has a black head, throat and back, a white front and underside, a thick stubby orange bill and pink feet. The most distinguishing features are the yellow sulphur-coloured crests above the eyes that extend from the bill to just behind the head. Both sexes are similar, whereas young birds have paler cheeks and shorter crests (2) (4).

Like other members of the genus Eudyptes the Fiordland crested penguin has a black throat but can be distinguished from the similar Rockhopper, Macaroni and Royal penguins by the shape, extent and colour of the eye crests (4). The two species that can be confused with the Fiordland crested are the erect-crested penguin and the Snares Island penguin. The former has eye crests that stand proud of the top of the head and no part which extends to below the eye itself. The latter is a slightly larger bird with a thicker bill (4).

Range

A migratory species, found in Antarctic waters and around the southern circumpolar islands, the Fiordland penguin breeds on the coast of southwest New Zealand, Stewart Island and Solander Island (5).

Habitat

Outside the breeding season, Fiordland crested penguins are birds of the open ocean. When ashore to breed they prefer secluded coastlines and chose nesting sites that are amongst rocks or have tree cover (3).

Biology

After spending much of the year alone in the open ocean, males arrive at the chosen breeding site ahead of the females during late June or July. Two weeks later the females arrive and mating takes place. The birds are monogamous and prefer their nest sites to be hidden from one another. Two pale-green eggs are laid in a cavity between tree roots, stones or small burrows in the coastal forest, and incubation takes from four to six weeks. The birds do not attempt to collect nest materials. Although it is usual for just one egg to hatch successfully, occasionally both chicks emerge. However, the parents rarely catch enough food for two offspring and the smaller chick usually dies (3).

While the chick is still defenseless, one parent (usually the male), will guard it whilst the other finds food. Fiordland crested penguins feed inshore and catch crustaceans, squid and small fish which they regurgitate for the chick. Once the young is large enough to be safe from most native predators, both parents take on the role of fishing to provide their offspring with food. Chicks often wander about the nest site or gather in loose-knit crèches. After about 10 or 11 weeks, the chick moults and leaves the nest site, finally adopting the solitary pelagic lifestyle of the adult birds. It will return to breed at the age of five years (2) (3).

Threats

The Fiordland crested penguin has declined in numbers drastically during the last twenty years. In the 1980s, the global population was estimated to number 10,000 breeding pairs. Today, the number is thought to be 2,500 to 3,000 pairs. The principal cause is believed to be from introduced animals such as cats and stoats (5), although where the birds' breeding sites are close to public beaches, pet dogs are thought to be largely responsible for disturbing adult birds and catching chicks. With the increase in human leisure activities, this pressure is bound to intensify (2). There is also a problem with the endemic weka, Gallirallus australis, which preys on eggs and chicks and is thought to contribute to over a third of egg loses in some breeding areas, especially Solander Island (5).

At sea, penguins are in constant competition for food with fishing vessels and sometimes find themselves caught in fishing nets. Perhaps the biggest threat, however, is through marine pollution, particularly oil spillage and the illegal but common practice of discharging oil tanker ballast water off-shore (5). As yet, little is known about the possible effects of global warming on penguin populations (5).
Conservation

Recent surveys of a number of the Fiordland crested penguin's breeding areas have suggested that more research into predator-related threats need to be examined. One idea is to eradicate the weka – the principal local predator – from Solander Island to reduce the losses of eggs and chicks (5).






























Further Information

For further information on the Fiordland crested penguin see:

* BirdLife International:
www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=3854&m=0
* International Penguin Conservation:
www.penguins.cl/fiordland-penguins.htm

References

1. IUCN Red List (April, 2007)
http://www.iucnredlist.org
2. International Penguin Conservation (April, 2004)
http://www.penguins.cl/fiordland-penguins.htm
3. Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology (April, 2004)
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Eudyptes_pachyrhynchus.html
4. Sparks, J. and Soper, T. (1968) Penguins. David and Charles, Newton Abbott.
5. Birdlife International (2003) Birdlife's on-line World Bird Database: the site for bird conservation. Version 2.0. Cambridge, UK: Birdlife International (April, 2004)
http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=3854&m=0


Information and images courtesy of ARKive @
http://www.arkive.org/fiordland-crested-penguin/eudyptes-pachyrhynchus/image-G41481.html

Climate change effects seen in Antarctic winds

Climate change effects seen in Antarctic winds

WASHINGTON (AP) — Changing wind patterns linked to global warming are altering the food chain in Antarctica and may lead to further increases in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

The most basic food, plankton, is declining in the northern portions of the Antarctic peninsula reaching toward South America, researchers report in Friday's edition of the journal Science.

At the same time, populations of Adelie penguins, who require a colder climate, have dropped sharply in that region, while warmer-weather chin-strap penguins have increased.

"We're showing for the first time that there is an ongoing change on phytoplankton concentration and composition along the western shelf of the Antarctic Peninsula that is associated with a long-term climate modification. These phytoplankton changes may explain in part the observed decline of some penguin populations," Martin Montes-Hugo, a marine scientist at Rutgers University, said in a statement.

The change reflects shifting patterns of cloud cover, ice formation and winds, the report said.

A separate report in the same edition of Science raises the possibility that new wind patterns could result in more upwelling of deep water in the region, which would then release stored carbon dioxide, potentially increasing global warming.

"The faster the ocean turns over, the more deep water rises to the surface to release CO2," said Robert Anderson, a geochemist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. "It's this rate of overturning that regulates CO2 in the atmosphere."

Story courtesy of AP and Google News @
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iVa3hcGutIHcqdyurJaN9RZeyGrwD96SKS480

Pikas, penguins and polar bears

Pikas, penguins and polar bears

KEYSTONE — Pikas in Summit County’s alpine zone, penguins in Antarctica and polar bears don’t have much in common at first glance, but all three animals are losing ground to a changing climate.

As a result, the federal government will have to consider how agency actions affect those species when they permit power plants or set new standards for automobile fuel efficiency, panelists at a Keystone environmental law conference said Friday.

The challenge for officials is how to quantify the impacts of local actions in a global context, said Federico Cheever, director of the environmental and natural resources law program at the University of Denver.

And the Endangered Species Act might not be the best tool for addressing climate change impacts to threatened plants and animals, according to Michael Bogert, former counsel to Secretary of Interior Dirk Kempthorne under the Bush administration.

“This is the real deal. It’s a change in the nature of biological diversity itself,” Cheever said, explaining how scientists have measured a doubling in the rate of forest mortality in the Rocky Mountains in the past few decades.

Cheever singled out the pika, a small rabbit-like mammal living high on the rocky slopes of local peaks, as a poster child for applying existing environmental laws on a global scale. The critters die when exposed to temperatures above 80 degrees. They are rapidly losing habitat due to climbing temperatures and could become the first terrestrial animal outside Alaska to be listed as an endangered species due to global warming.

Already listed

Polar bears and two species of coral have already been listed because of climate change impacts, and more than 150 additional species in the U.S. are under consideration. The panelists at the American Bar Association’s 38th annual environmental law conference were trying to determine how existing federal laws figure into the regulatory equation.

Under most traditional interpretations of the Endangered Species Act, an agency like the Bureau of Indian Affairs would have to determine how much of an impact a new coal-fired power plant in New Mexico or Colorado has on polar bears near the North Pole and penguins in Antarctica.

The vexing question is how to measure the site-specific impacts of such a project on a global scale. Top conservation leaders like Kieran Suckling, director of the Center for Biological Diversity, said the federal government is legally obligated to do just that.

But Jeff Leppo, a Seattle-based attorney for the oil and gas industry, said it’s not so easy. Polar bears are first species to be listed before biologists actually have been able to determine a decline in the abundance or distribution of a species. Leppo said the industry acknowledges that global warming is drastically reducing polar bear habitat, but questioned whether the Endangered Species Act is the appropriate tool for regulating greenhouse gas emissions.

“Is this an appropriate use of the Endangered Species Act. Is it a good policy approach?” Leppo asked. “The truth is, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (which administers the act) does not have the expertise to have a broad-based discussion about emission policy and regulation,” Leppo said.

“It’s a random, issue-by-issue, case-by-case approach. Business operates best in a predictable regulatory climate,” Leppo said, adding that, in today’s shaky economy, it’s more important than ever to maintain a level playing field for industry.

“The Endangered Species Act is the least predictable way to establish emissions and climate change policy,” he said.

New rules

“We’re playing under very different rules than we have in past decades. But even the Bush administration accepted that climate change is a reason for listing species under … the Endangered Species Act,” Cheever said.

The ESA is designed to save species … “It’s not a statute to save the world,” said Bogert. “It’s clear that polar bear habitat is declining,” he said, referring to the dramatic retreat in Arctic sea ice that led the Bush administration to list polar bears as threatened. “How do you account for it? How do you hold the Burea of Indian Affairs accountable for the impacts of the Desert Rock project?”

Boger was referring to the act’s requirement that federal agencies determine whether their actions will further endanger a listed species — no easy task when trying to measure the effects of emissions from a single power plant against the background of all the other sources of greenhouse gases.

Suckling said that, even if the impacts are small on a global scale, the Endangered Species Act still requires federal agencies to make that determination. He said the impacts are quantifiable, and that decision makers must take them into account.

“The Endangered Species Act doesn’t say, ‘Only if the impacts are not on a global scale.’ It says the impacts must be reduced,” Suckling said, adding that up to 40 percent of the world’s animals could face the threat of extinction because of rising temperatures.

All the panelists acknowledged that new rules and laws are needed to address the environmental impacts of climate change. Suckling said that using existing laws like the Endangered Species Act will establish case that will shape new rules.

Bogert and Leppo suggested that new rules should be drawn up from scratch based on emerging science and the global nature of the threat.

Suckling said the immediate goal should be to do everything possible to try and stop or slow the impending global wave of extinction from climate change impacts.

Bob Berwyn can be reached at (970) 331-5996, or at bberwyn@summitdaily.com.

Source: The Summit Daily @
http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20090313/NEWS/903139983/1078&ParentProfile=1055&title=Pikas,%20penguins%20and%20polar%20bears

Smile and Learn, Penguin Fans

Humboldt penguin (Spheniscus humboldti)

Humboldt penguin (Spheniscus humboldti)

Facts
Also known as: Peruvian penguin
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Chordata
Class Aves
Order Sphenisciformes
Family Spheniscidae
Genus Spheniscus (1)
Size Length: 65 cm (2)
Average weight: 4 kg (3)

Status

Classified as Vulnerable (VU B2abcde+3bc, C1) on the IUCN Red List 2003 (1). Listed on Appendix I of CITES (4) and on Appendix I of the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS or Bonn Convention) (5).

Description

Humboldt penguins, named after the cold current of water running from the Antarctic to the equator along the west coast of South America (itself named after the German naturalist Friedrich Humboldt), are a medium-sized penguin. They have proportionately large heads, black backs and tails, and a black band across the chest that runs down the body beneath the flippers to the black feet. The face is also black, but separated from the head and neck by a white border. The strong bill is black with a white band near the tip and the lower mandible has a pink fleshy-coloured base extending to the front of the eyes (6). Females are slightly smaller that the males but are otherwise similar. Juvenile birds are predominantly slate grey across the head and back, white at the front, and lack the bold double stripe of the adults (6).

Range

This species is found along the coasts of Peru and Chile within the reaches of the Humboldt Current. Some birds have been recorded as vagrants northwards off Columbia There are also isolated colonies further to the south on the Punihuil Islands

Habitat

Humboldt penguins nest on rocky coasts and islands with suitable terrain for constructing nest burrows (2).

Biology

These penguins can be found in their breeding colonies throughout the year although the main breeding seasons are from March to April and September to October, depending on the location. The birds dig burrows into the sand or guano cliffs, or find small crevices in which to lay the eggs. Two eggs are laid over a period of 2-4 days, incubation taking between 40 and 42 days, with both adult birds sharing nest duties. The chicks usually hatch two days apart and are fed by both adults once they have acquired their first thick downy coats (3).

Chicks rarely leave their nest scrape until they are fledged at about 12 weeks. They then fend for themselves along the coast for several months before returning to establish their own nests, often within the same colony where they were reared. They reach maturity at the age of two years (3).

Humboldt penguins exploit the cold waters off the South American west coast for food. The Humboldt Current flows northwards from Antarctica, and provides a rich harvest of fish, particularly anchovies, but the birds also feed on other fish species, krill and squid. Although they can reach depths of 150 metres, the birds rarely descend deeper than 60 metres (3).

These penguins have been popular exhibits in zoos for many years and have been known to live for up to 30 years in captivity. They rarely reach this age in the wild (3).

Threats

The principal risks to Humboldt penguins come from human over-harvesting of the fish stocks, especially anchovies, and exploiting the birds' guano beds, the mineral-rich guano being used as fertiliser. Removal of the guano deprives the birds from constructing nest burrows and leaves the eggs and chicks vulnerable to weather and predators (3).

On the mainland nesting sites, wild dogs take eggs, chicks and even adult birds. Natural predators on land include foxes and caracaras (a large native hawk), whilst in the water the penguins fall prey to fur seals, sharks and whales. A more alarming trend over recent decades has been the effects of El Niño-related events. This is known to affect penguin numbers in two ways; by displacing the Humboldt Current with warmer, less food-rich water, and raising severe storms that can wash out the nesting colonies (3). There are also cases of birds being drowned in fishing nests and they are constantly at risk from marine pollution (3).
Conservation

Following a series of disastrous breeding years, which included two El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events, a population and habitat viability survey was carried out in 1998 on the Humboldt penguin. This concluded that, using figures for current breeding trends and estimating a world population of between 3,300 and 12,000 breeding pairs, the species was likely to become extinct within the next century (2). Legislation to assist the recovery of the Humboldt penguin has been passed in Chile, including a 30 year moratorium on killing or capturing the birds, and protection of the four principal breeding colonies. In Peru, the major colonies are also protected and the extraction of guano is managed by government (2).

Further proposed conservation targets to save this species include the creation of marine nature reserves around the main breeding grounds, greater care over the extraction of guano, reducing the fish harvests during ENSO events and setting up ‘awareness' programmes to limit the hunting of penguins and accidental entanglement (by-catch) in fishing nets (2).

Further Information

International Penguin Conservation:
http://www.penguins.cl/humboldt-penguins.htm

References

1. IUCN Red List (April, 2004)
http://www.redlist.org
2. Capper, D.R. and Statterfield, A.J. (2000) Threatened birds of the world. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona and Birdlife International, Cambridge.
3. International Penguin Conservation (April, 2004)
http://www.penguins.cl/humboldt-penguins.htm
4. CITES (April, 2004)
http://www.cites.org
5. Convention on Migratory Species (April, 2004)
http://www.unep-wcmc.org/cms/
6. Soper, T. and Sparks, J. (1968) Penguins. David and Charles, Newton Abbott

Information and images courtesy of ARKive@
http://www.arkive.org/humboldt-penguin/spheniscus-humboldti/image-G10537.html

Unhappy Feet

Photo: davidw/Flickr

Unhappy feet
Climate change is causing penguins a stressful commute.
By Elizabeth Grossman
Wed, Feb 18 2009 at 6:10 PM EST

Imagine buying a house in Chicago's suburbs so you can commute to work in the city, and suddenly your job is moved to Des Moines. That's what's happening to the Magellanic penguins that live on the coast of Argentina, according to University of Washington biologist Dr. Dee Boersma. "For penguins, the cost of living is going up and they're having to work harder and harder to keep it going," says Boersma, who's studied penguins for 30 years and directs the Wildlife Conservation Society's Penguin Project. What's causing the penguins' debilitating long commute? Climate change.

Presenting her latest research at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Chicago last weekend, Boersma explained that shifting ocean conditions — changes in temperature and circulation — and overfishing are among the factors pushing penguins to travel farther and father to find food. "When they go out to forage, penguins are swimming about 25 miles farther than they did a decade ago," Boersma said. "While they're swimming, their mate is sitting on the nest starving and fasting, so they're both in this vicious cycle.

"When they're raising their chicks, Magellanic penguins are racing against their own physiology," she added. To find fish for their new chicks, the penguins now have to travel about 30 miles farther than they did a decade ago. The 60-mile round trip requires a lot of energy, which impacts both parent and chick.

As ocean temperatures and current patterns change, so do numbers and locations of different fish species, said Dr. William Cheung, lecturer in marine ecosystem services at the U.K.'s University of East Anglia, who also presented his work at the AAAS meeting. These changes are affecting anchovies, the favorite food of Magellanic penguins. Until recently, anchovies have been reliably abundant near the penguins' winter breeding grounds at Punta Tombo, Argentina. Now the fish are going farther and farther north.

These fish are now abundant, but Boersma is concerned that Argentina may begin to exploit its anchovies as Peru has. Overfishing there has led to the severe decline in local seabirds. Climate change impacts, said scientists at AAAS, make marine conservation more important than ever.



Climate change causes increased variations in ocean conditions — the temperatures and currents that determine food supplies and other factors that allow fish to thrive. To find both, the anchovies on which penguins depend are moving north. Penguins are having trouble adapting to this change. Last year, penguins followed anchovies as far north as Brazil, nearly to the equator. "Over a thousand died as a result," Boersma said.

"Over the past two decades, we've also seen that the penguins are laying their eggs three days later than they used to, so breeding season is getting shorter. Therefore the chances of chicks leaving the nest at a time when there is no food gets greater and greater," Boersma said. And if adult penguins aren't in good condition, they may not come back to their nesting grounds; some females have even begun to skip a breeding season, resulting in lower penguin numbers overall. "Over the last 22 years, these penguins have declined by over 20 percent. Of the world's 19 penguin species, 12 are in trouble," Boersma said.

Penguins are adapting to some extent, "voting with their feet," Boersma said. They're moving north to new winter breeding grounds, but this poses additional challenges to their survival. As they move north, closer to food sources, penguins are leaving protected reserves and settling on private lands. Outside conservation zones, they're vulnerable to direct human impacts. In addition, changing weather has increased heavy rains over the past 25 years, killing large numbers of penguin chicks.

"I think of penguins as ocean sentinels," Boersma said. "Penguins are already seeing the impacts of climate change and telling us there are problems. The difficulty is in being proactive.

"Fundamentally," she continued, "we have to control ourselves and our consumption. If we don't, we'll see more of these system breakdowns and both people and penguins will suffer."


For more on Boersma's research and the Penguin Project, see her page at the University of Washington website.


Photo: cordyph/Flickr
Story courtesy of Mother Nature Network @
http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/climate-change/stories/unhappy-feet

PS Doctor Dee--you rock!

Wallpaper from the USGS

Image of the Day

2/2/08 - Royal Ontario Museum: Microraptor Gui
Originally uploaded by mavra_chang

Update on Dyan deNapoli's website

Folks,

The original article, printed below, did NOT include the site where one can contact Dyan deNapoli (aka the penguin lady). It is:

Dyan deNapoli
THE PENGUIN LADY
Educational Programs
www.thepenguinlady.com

978-352-2235

--and just in case you lose it, I'll post it in the links section pronto.

Please take the time to visit this remarkable lady's website and keep doing what you can for all penguins everywhere.

Ahay!
wiinterrr