The yellow-eyed penguin is very tenacious when foraging for food. For example, the breeding population of Adélie penguins (about 2,370,000 pairs) can consume up to 1.5 million metric tons (1.5 billion kg) of krill, 115,000 metric tons (115 million kg) of fish and 3,500 metric tons (3.5 million kg) of squid each year, according to Sea World. Some species of penguin can make a large dent in an area's food supply.
Their diet includes krill (tiny crustaceans), squid and fish. This phenomenon of being in a noisy crowd but being able to hear your friend’s voice through the din is known as the “ the cocktail party effect.Penguins are carnivores they eat only meat. The ability to filter out extraneous noise and home in on only what you need to hear is a trait that at least three species of penguins share with humans. King penguins, which are monogamous during mating season, can recognize their partners’ call, even in noisy colonies where hundreds of penguins are searching for their own mates.
The birds use visual cues like lakes and hills as well as sounds of the colony to guide themselves home. This is a feat that combines both memory and navigation, Powell says.Įven at 10 months old, king penguin chicks can find their way back to a square-meter space in a huge colony from a third of a mile away. Many penguin species, including Adelie and Chinstrap, return to the same nest spot each year and have to be able to find it in colonies where there may be thousands of other birds. ( Read about how crows react to the deaths of their comrades.) Like crows, which can remember particular human faces for years, many penguin species have remarkable memories.
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Microchip-implanted penguins in Argentina are helping scientists by just doing what comes naturally on the birds' favorite "highway" to the sea.Ĭoordinated hunting requires “rapid information processing,” says Powell, integrating quickly changing movements and signals from flock mates, and “making a prediction where the fish are going to go and how to then get them.” Master navigators It’s a method almost three times more efficient than group-hunting a single fish, according to a study published in Royal Society Open Science. African penguins, which live around the southern tip of Africa, cooperate to herd fish, driving them towards the surface for easy pickings. But their intelligence can be compared to corvids in several ways, she says.įor example, penguins hunt cooperatively, just like brown-necked ravens. Penguin cognition is not quite as well documented as that of parrots or corvids (crows, ravens, and magpies, for example), which have been formally studied for years, says Anne Tieber, Curator of Birds at the St. When assessing intelligence, he says, it’s important to test abilities that are “actually meaningful to the animal,” like hunting and navigation. Intelligence doesn’t just mean cleverness, says David Powell, Director of Research at the St. Do penguins have the same smarts and good memories as other birds like ravens and crows, he asks? ( Read more about crow and raven intelligence.) Smarts of the Penguins Documentary films like March of the Penguins have captivated audiences around the world.īut Twitter user wants to know if penguins are as clever as they are cute. Their striking appearance and jaunty waddles spark endless fascination among wildlife watchers and zoogoers alike.
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