Penguin Watch Talk

How do pengs know that an egg has gone bad?

  • AvastMH by AvastMH moderator

    Hello!
    Please could you help with this question...

    How do pengs know that an egg has gone bad? OR do they not know until one hatches and one does not?

    The peng on the left has one chick and one egg. In later photos the egg is out of the nest, towards us by that white rock. Thanks!

    http://talk.penguinwatch.org/#/subjects/APZ0003t19

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  • gardenmaeve by gardenmaeve moderator

    Eggs change in weight and "feel" when they have a developing chick as opposed to non-fertile eggs. Other times an embryo stops developing and dies in the egg when genetic or developmental problems exist. If experienced chickens and songbirds can tell, and they certainly can, why not penguins? An inexperienced brooding bird may not be so well equipped to tell the difference or may not protect the eggs well.

    Finally, all bird species I've worked with "talk" to their chicks in the egg, and near hatching time hear little peeps from the chick in return. For penguins, as for other birds, I would say that's when the adults and chicks begin to recognize one another's calls as needed in those colonies of tens, hundreds, and thousands of birds!

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  • AvastMH by AvastMH moderator

    Thanks so much gardenmaeve! Very interesting! 😃

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  • Motherjoanne by Motherjoanne in response to gardenmaeve's comment.

    Hi gardenmaeve. You would love the movie "My Life as a Turkey". Naturalist hatches a brood of wild American turkeys and forsakes his human life to act as parent to his brood for a whole year. The segment where he makes the chirping sounds to the developing eggs and when they hatch and imprint is very touching. His brood was in Florida and turkeys live in the woods - not on ice floes and under frozen seas, but it is interesting to contemplate shadowing a penguin for a year.

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  • 2rjnauta by 2rjnauta

    I agree with Motherjoanne about tracking several penguins for a year. Attach tracking devices on a few and see where they travel to during the year would be an interesting project for at least for me.

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  • gardenmaeve by gardenmaeve moderator

    Thanks, Motherjoanne. I've seen it. We enjoy watching the wild turkeys here, too. I always talk to our chicks in the egg. They learn Mama's talk and mine too.

    I'd love to know more about the penguins, but would hate to saddle them with transmitters. Life is tough enough already! I'd put their needs ahead of my curiosity.

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  • wildmonster by wildmonster

    Hi, I think I've read about attaching tracking devices to penguins. So I did a quick search and found these pieces:

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/15/penguins-wild-track-south-africa_n_899932.html

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/south_west/6101978.stm

    http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/sep/12/happy-feet-penguin-tracker-silent

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  • Motherjoanne by Motherjoanne

    I have read that penguins with tracking devices have an increased death rate of 44%. Or is that they are 44% more likely to die. So scientists have mostly stopped using them. I'll check out wildmonster's citations and see what they have to say about it.

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  • Nickypeng by Nickypeng moderator

    Here's another article about some penguin research being done in New Zealand that includes penguin body cameras

    body cams

    Nicky&Peng

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  • yshish by yshish moderator, translator

    There is a TV mini series Penguins - Spy in the Huddle which should be using 50 spy-cameras.. I've never seen that but someone recommended it to me recently.

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  • wildmonster by wildmonster

    Here's an article from 2011 about penguins negatively affected by tracking devices. It mentions the difference between metal flipper tags and electronic devices:

    http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2011/01/12/science-gone-awry-penguins-with-tracking-devices-die-sooner/#.VUY3OqYyexI

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  • yshish by yshish moderator, translator in response to wildmonster's comment.

    Thanks for sharing @wildmonster ! It's worth reading.

    Z.

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  • GizmoMischief by GizmoMischief

    At SANCCOB they give some penguins a transponder which is injected under the skin (much like a microchip) on the day of release and then they can use this to track penguins for long term post release monitoring.

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  • AvastMH by AvastMH moderator

    Very interesting Wildmonster - thank you! I have to admit that I never have liked the look of those bands at all. But SANCOOB's transponders sound OK-Hopefully they don't affect the 'homing' bit of the bird's brain? 😃

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