Hungry penguins with tiny video cameras strapped to their backs have given scientists a rare glimpse of their spectacular and voracious feeding habits.
Footage from Adelie penguins in waters off the coast of Antarctica showed the birds darting at krill, snapping up fish and hunting down prey beneath sheets of floating ice in the Lutzow-Holm Bay area.
In more than 14 hours of film captured from 11 birds, not once did a penguin miss its target. Some marine creatures had no time to hide, while others tried to flee and failed.
One penguin swam into a dense swarm of krill and captured two of the shrimp-like creatures in one second. Another penguin encountered a school of what appeared to be Antarctic silver fish and caught 14 in 20 seconds. In many cases, the moment the penguin captures its prey is only clear when the video is slowed down.
Two Japanese scientists at the National Institute of Polar Research in Tokyo, Yuuki Watanabe and Akinori Takahashi, attached video cameras to the birds to learn more about how they hunted in the frigid Antarctic waters. By attaching small accelerometers to the birds’ bodies and heads, the scientists gathered information on the penguins’ movements and the fast-snapping action they used to capture prey as they swam. The film was recorded between December 2010 and early February 2011.
Krill and fish called bald notothens (Pagothenia borchgrevinki) made up 96 percent of the food the penguins caught.
“The foraging behavior of Adelie penguins is remarkably fast and efficient,” the scientists wrote in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Some of the footage showed penguins making shallow dives of less than 30m that did not involve hunting, but in others they embarked on successful foraging trips. Penguins often swam up towards krill and then darted down as they struck. Some krill tried to escape, but were too slow.
Lutzow-Holm Bay, where the penguins live, has surface ice the birds hunt beneath. On several occasions they spied bald notothens, which grow to about 30cm, and either took them before the fish had time to react, or chased them down.
“Escape behavior of the fish was not evident in most cases, suggesting an excellent stealth approach by penguins,” the scientists wrote.
“However, in two cases, they chased a P. borchgrevinki toward the underside of the sea ice and caught it there, as if they used the ice surface as a barrier,” they added.
The insight into penguin foraging is vital for scientists hoping to understand the ecology of the birds in the wild. The feeding behavior of the penguins determines how much energy they spend and gain on hunts, and how fit the animals are.
REBUILDING: A researcher said that it might seem counterintuitive to start talking about reconstruction amid the war with Russia, but it is ‘actually an urgent priority’ Italy is hosting the fourth annual conference on rebuilding Ukraine even as Russia escalates its war, inviting political and business leaders to Rome to promote public-private partnerships on defense, mining, energy and other projects as uncertainty grows about the US’ commitment to Kyiv’s defense. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy were opening the meeting yesterday, which gets under way as Russia accelerated its aerial and ground attacks against Ukraine with another night of pounding missile and drone attacks on Kyiv. Italian organizers said that 100 official delegations were attending, as were 40 international organizations and development banks. There are
TARIFF ACTION: The US embassy said that the ‘political persecution’ against former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro disrespects the democratic traditions of the nation The US and Brazil on Wednesday escalated their row over US President Donald Trump’s support for former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, with Washington slapping a 50 percent tariff on one of its main steel suppliers. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva threatened to reciprocate. Trump has criticized the prosecution of Bolsonaro, who is on trial for allegedly plotting to cling on to power after losing 2022 elections to Lula. Brasilia on Wednesday summoned Washington’s top envoy to the country to explain an embassy statement describing Bolsonaro as a victim of “political persecution” — echoing Trump’s description of the treatment of Bolsonaro as
Pakistani police yesterday said a father shot dead his daughter after she refused to delete her TikTok account. In the Muslim-majority country, women can be subjected to violence by family members for not following strict rules on how to behave in public, including in online spaces. “The girl’s father had asked her to delete her TikTok account. On refusal, he killed her,” a police spokesperson said. Investigators said the father killed his 16-year-old daughter on Tuesday “for honor,” the police report said. The man was subsequently arrested. The girl’s family initially tried to “portray the murder as a suicide” said police in
The military is to begin conscripting civilians next year, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said yesterday, citing rising tensions with Thailand as the reason for activating a long-dormant mandatory enlistment law. The Cambodian parliament in 2006 approved a law that would require all Cambodians aged 18 to 30 to serve in the military for 18 months, although it has never been enforced. Relations with Thailand have been tense since May, when a long-standing territorial dispute boiled over into cross-border clashes, killing one Cambodian soldier. “This episode of confrontation is a lesson for us and is an opportunity for us to review, assess and
RSS