Penguin Watch Talk

One Chick

  • nthrockmorton by nthrockmorton

    "Why didn't that penguin molt?" [Annika]
    There is one brown chick/fledgling up front on the left.

    Posted

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

    Dear Annika and dad,

    It is a very good question! The answer is not easy since those are King penguins which have a bit more complicated and unique breeding cycle.

    'It takes 14 till 16 months to court, lay an egg and raise a chick. Most pairs therefore raise a chick just twice in a period of three years. In a colony chicks of every age will live side by side. A pair that laid an egg in November (early summer) in the first breeding season, has to go on raising it after the next winter (May-August) in September. Only the next year in February-March (near the end of the second breeding season) they will again lay one egg. With a bit of luck the chick has grown enough before the next winter to survive. Adults with smaller chicks return more often to feed it during the winter. It will be raised further in the next (third breeding season) summer. But when that second chick is ready to fledge, it is too late in the season to start breeding again. The adults therefore leave the colony and lay an egg not until the next (fourth) breeding season.

    The breeding cycle starts when the adult birds come ashore to moult and then return to sea for 20 days to regain energy. They breed on flat beaches or in valleys close to the water and under the shelter of high bunches, as protection against the wind. The female lays one single egg, which will be incubated for 54 days by both alternating parents. They incubate the egg, and later the chick, on their feet, against a bare brood patch on their belly, under a fold of skin covered with feathers. The chick remains 30 till 40 days on that place, until it is old enough to regulate its body temperature and can go to the crèche. Now both parents will forage and feed the chick. During the long winter period (May-August) chicks will only be fed once till maximum three times. Only the strongest will survive the winter. The chicks moult to their juvenile plumage and fledge at the age of around 13 months.'

    (There is a colorful but a very complicated looking breeding cycle (which can't be shared by a link):
    http://www.pinguins.info/Engels/Aptenodytes_eng.html - just click on the 'King penguins' on the right of the top menu and then scroll almost down. It could help to understand their breeding cycle.)

    So this chick just probably isn't old enough to do so.

    Zuzi

    Posted