Field Studies of Spheniscus Penguins DAVID CAMERON Duffy
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SPN August, 1991 Spheniscus Penguin Newsletter vol. 4, number 1 In this Issue The British and Irish Humboldt Studbook, 1990 1 Planning for the Future of North American Humboldts 1 Hand-rearing Humboldts at Sea World, San Diego 2 Building Better Nesting Sites for Spheniscus Penguins 8 A Survey of Spheniscus Field Studies 10 A Selected Bibliography of Spheniscus Penguins 16 This issue of SPN : The major articles in this issue, with the exception of 'Nesting Sites for Spheniscus Penguins/" are from papers presented at the Spheniscus Workshop held at the AAZPA Regional Conference in Sacramento, California, in March 1990. Other papers presented at that workshop were included in the November, 1990 SPN, and it was intended to include all remaining papers in this issue. Unforhmate realities of printing costs/ however, forced a change in plan (see below for information on contributing toward production costs of this publication). Papers remaining, for our next issue, are: "Avian Malaria/" "Incubation Behavior Patterns in Adelies/" "Molt Patterns of Black-footed Penguins," and "Diet, Feeding Regimen, and Growth Rates in Hand-reared Magellanic Chicks." Thanks to the authors and to the American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums, for permission to reprint these papers. Publication information: SPN Spheniscus Penguin Newsletter ISSN # 1045-0076 Indexed in Wildlife Review SPN is published twice aIUlUally, with financial support from the Portland Chapter of the American Association ofZoo Keepers, and the Metro Washington Park Zoo. Subscription is free, to those with a serious interest in Spheniscus penguins. Contributions toward printing and postage costs arewelcome (and tax-deductible in the US) ;please make checks payable to "Portland Chapter, AAZK," and send to the Editor at the address below. Articles submitted for publication should be tYPed. For articles which include graphs (such as line or bar graphs) please include a separate sheet giving the data used to generate the graph. Authors who work on a Macintosh computer can help our layout process by sending their work on disk (accompanied by a paper copy just in case). Thedrawing which servesasourcover logo is reproduced bykind permission of the artist, Ann Munson. Thanks to Kathy Ivanov for help with word processing for this issue. Please address all correspondence to: Cynthia Cheney, Editor Spheniscus Penguin Newsletter Washington Park Zoo 4001 SW Canyon Rd. Portland, Oregon 97221 USA Telephone: (503) 226-1561 FAX: (503) 226-6836 Field Studies of Spheniscus Penguins DAVID CAMERON DuFFY THE POPULAR IMAGE OF PENGUINS IS ONE with upwelling marine ecosystems OF ICE. HOWEVER, PENGUINS OF THE GENUS (Murphy, 1936). SPHENISCUS RARELY IF EVER SEE ICE AND The Galapagos Penguin has an ex- instead inhabit areas more tropical tremely restricted range, nesting only than polar. This has been both boon Long Island, New York on the west side of Isla Isabela and on and bane. The Spheniscus penguins Isla Fernandina in the western have taken the brunt of human ex- Galapagos Islands (Harris, 1974). The ploitation, while until recently being geographic names, so why not the Humboldt Penguin is confined to the more or less ignored as research sub- African Penguin? George Gaylord upwelling of the Humboldt Current jects compared to polar penguins. Simpson (976), the godfather of fossil of the west coast of South America, Human exploitation and research ne- penguinology, made the same plea. nesting from northern Peru to Chiloe glect have now diminished, although Given the propensity of the vari- Island,Chile (Araya, 1983; Hays, 1983). much remains to be done concerning ous species to interbreed in captivity, The Magellanic Penguin nests on the both conservation and research. a few words on their evolutionary re- Pacific coast, from central Chile, south What follows is a selective over- lationships are in order. Genetically, around Cape Horn, and north on the view, but the papersci ted will provide there is at present only one study, by Atlantic, to central Argentina, as well access to the rest of the literature on Grant et a1. (in press), on the as on the Falklands and on several of each species. I would like to note that Humboldt, Magellanic and African Chile's offshore islands (Murphy, 1936; most of what we know is mostly the taxa, using electrophoretic analysis of Araya and Millie, 1986). The African result of work by a very few people: gene frequencies. The three species are Penguin nests from central Namibia Boersma on Galapagos Penguins; very closely related, suggesting that if south around the Cape of Good Hope Scolaro on Magellanic Penguins; they are species, rather than subspe- and along the south coast of South Araya and Hays on Humboldt Pen- cies, they are very recent ones. The Africa (Rand, 1960; Shelton et a1. 1984). guins; and Cooper, Rand, Randall, and Galapagos Penguin probably evolved Only the Magellanic and Hum- Wilson on African Penguins, presently from a stray colonization of the is- boldt overlap in breeding range, over the best known of the species. lands by Humboldt Penguins, approximately 1750km of Chilean although its double-breast pattern is coast (Duffy, 1987a; Duffy et aI., in more similar to that of the double- prep. a). Mixed pairs have been ob- Taxonomy banded Magellanic than of the served but not studied. We haven't a single-banded Humboldt. Similarly, clue as to how the species differ in There are currently believed to be the single-banded African Penguin their courtship and mating behavior four species of Spheniscus penguin: the may have evolved from the Magel- to prevent interbreeding in the wild. Humboldt Spheniscus humboldti, lanic or vice-versa. Galapagos Spheniscus mendiculus, Occasional individuals of the Afri- Magellanic Spheniscus magellanicus, canand, less frequently, the Humboldt, Colony Size And Distribution and the African, Black-footed, or Jack- have double stripes, suggesting either ass Spheniscus demersus, all with a very occasional immigration and past in- The Spheniscus penguins don't nest similar morphology (Livezey, 1989). terbreeding with Magellanics, or that in colonies so much as they nest where I prefer African as the common name a recessive gene for double-bandedness suitable access to the sea and suitable for the last species, as Jackass is also lurks in the best of birds. nesting sites occur, with nesting used for Magellanics and Humboldts, ranging from solitary Galapagos Pen- and Black-footed is singularly guins to immense colonies of uninformative. The other three have Distribution Magellanic and African penguins. The reasons for these differences need fur- David Cameron Duffy, The Spheniscus penguins range to ther study. The Galapagos Penguin Executive Director the Equator in the Pacific and stray nests in small, scattered groups The Seatuck Foundation almost to the Equator in the Atlantic (Boersma, 1977; Harcourt, 1980; Valle, P.O. Box 31 (Gabon: Shelton et. a1.1984), but they 1986). Much of its range appears too Islip, Long Island, NY 11751 are cool-water specialists, associating cliff-bound for birds to get ashore SPlV August1991 page 10 Field Studies of Spheniscus Penguins (Boersma, 1977), a problem faced by Magellanic Penguin, the Spheniscus The Magellanic Penguin, with a the other species. The Humboldt Pen- species can be found breeding population on the order of a million guin in Peru nests mostly in small throughout the year (Koepcke, 1970; birds or more, is increasing in Argen- colonies in sea-caves on islands and Boersma, 1978; Cooper, 1980) so that tina, perhaps because of changes in the coast or in burrows on islands single counts, even at peak breeding, food availability or reduction of where it is slightly safer from intense miss many pairs that breed at other predators (Scolaro, 1985; Boersma et poaching pressure (Hays, 1983, Duffy times of year Randall et a1. (1986a) aI., 1990). The status of its population et aI., 1984a), whereas in Chile, where developed a method of counting in Chile is unknown, although the human disturbance is much reduced, moulting birds throughout the year at species is common (Schlatter, 1984). it nests in much larger colonies on is- a frequency similar to the duration of The African Penguin has suffered a lands (Araya, 1983). The Magellanic moult, so that each moulting bird was population crash since the tum of the and African Penguins nest or nested counted only once. Assuming that century (Burger and Cooper, 1984; in colonies of 10,000 to 100,000+ birds do not move to other islands to Shelton, et aI., 1984) Between 1956and (Scolaro and Arias de Reyna, 1984; moult (Randall et aI., 1987), this would 1978, the population decreased from Scolaro et aI., 1980a, 1984; Shelton et give a 'true' count of the population. 230,000 to 100,000 (Burger and Coo- aI., 1984; Capurro et aI., 1988). Except per, 1984), but its recent dynamics have for several small colonies which may been complex, decreasing in the cen- suffer periodic bouts of catastrophic Population Fluctuations and Trends ter of its range and increasing or disturbance from humans and at least remaining stable to the north and east once from a leopard (Panthera pardus) With the possible exception of the (Frost et aI., 1976a; Siegfried and (pers. observ.), African Penguins nest Magellanic Penguin, the Spheniscus Crawford, 1978; Shelton et al., 1984). on islands (Shelton et aI., 1984). penguins have suffered either short- These changes have been linked to Magellanics nest on both islands and term or historical population changes in fish stock (Crawford and the mainland, and it remains a mys- decreases. The Galapagos Penguin, Shelton, 1978, 1981; Burger and Coo- tery to me why terrestrial predators apparently otherwise stable at between per, 1984; Crawford et aI., 1985) and have notexterrninated whole colonies. 3,000 and 15,000 birds (Brasset, 1963; overfishing (Crawford and Shelton, Scolaro (1985) suggests that humans Harris, 1977; Boersma, 1977), lost 77% 1978, 1981), but the mechanisms for have reduced local populations of ter- of its counted population during the overfishing are unclear, as penguins restrial predators.