Penguin Quandaries
Jean Pennycook
www.penguinscience.com
Researchers spend many hours watching
birds to determine their behavior patterns.
Test your inquiry skills with the field
questions about penguins in this
presentation to see how your answers
match those of the scientists. Discuss
your answers with your classmates.
The scientists answers are in the notes at
the bottom of each slide.
This brooding penguin is showing the "incubation
patch." The egg nestles into this area when the
penguin is laying on the eggs. Give some
reasons why this part of their body is not covered
with feathers?
The penguin at the left
built the nest on top of a
four foot snow drift. What
do you think will happen
to this nest, egg or chick
as the season
progresses?
Many of the nests in the colony have these white
markings around them. Why are they there and
what causes them?
This penguin has built the nest away from any group.
Do you think this is an advantage or disadvantage for
successful chick rearing?
There were two eggs in these nests. In the one on the right
the first chick is 2 days old. The second one is beginning to
hatch. In the nest on the left one chick is 3 days older than
the other. Write down some advantages to being the first
born. Think of some advantages to being the second born.
Make a decision, would you rather be the first or second
born penguin? Justify your decision.
Some birds breed all year round
and may hatch their chicks in
any month. In some Adélie
colonies, half of all eggs are
laid within a 6-day period in
November, and all are laid
within about a 2 week period.
This picture shows a nest with
chicks several days old and a
nest with un-hatched eggs.
The main predator in this colony is the Skua, and the summer is
very short. Make a list of advantages and disadvantages for chicks
to hatch early in the season? or later in the season? What short and
long term advantages are there for penguins to synchronize their
hatching date?
This penguin has been on the nest for 3 days over the normal
limit. The mate may not return. The drive to raise chicks may
soon give way to the drive for food. If this adult leaves, the
egg will surely die. Penguins are probably not capable of
making a conscious decision like you and me. Make a list of
events that would trigger this penguin to abandon the nest.
When researchers want to know what animals use for food they can
either watch them eat, or examine their stomach contents. We cannot
watch penguins eat and to examine their stomachs would harm them.
This picture shows chick food regurgitated by the parent. We know from
past experiments that pink means krill, gray means fish, and spend many
hours waiting for these observations so we know what penguins are
eating.
How important is it to know what penguins eat? What if we had no idea
what they ate? Would it make any difference in understanding how to
protect them in the wild?
Penguins are graceful and fast swimmers. They
swim to catch their food. Do you think they ever
swim for fun? Why did you answer the question the
way you did, and how could you test your answer?
In penguin colonies there are some areas with plenty of nest
sites, lots of small stones and rocks for protection but no
birds. In these pictures you see areas where Adélie penguins
have built their nests and areas where they have not. Make a
list of some reasons why the penguins chose the area they
did. If you wanted to test your ideas, what would you do?
These chicks are too big to stay in the nest. You can see the
once tidy piles of rocks are now spread everywhere. The
adults you see in this picture are non-breeders, they did not
have their own nests or chicks. Why are the chicks in a
large group and what are the non breeders doing?
The adult penguin in this picture is fresh from feeding in the
ocean (notice the wet feathers). Chicks will chase any adult
returning from the ocean asking for food. How does an adult
penguin know the chicks chasing them are their own?
This pair of chicks are the same age, but not the same size.
The time for growing is almost over as the Antarctic winter is
approaching. Why is there a difference between these chicks
from the same family? What do you think will happen to the
smaller chick as winter approaches?
Penguins gather at the
ice edge in large groups
before going in. Their
food is in the water, but
danger lurks in the form
of leopard seals, who
wait for the penguins to
jump in. Penguins pace
back and forth waiting for
one bird to make the
decision to go, then they
all go. What advantage is
there to being the first
one in? the last? in the
middle?
This is an average nesting group in the colony. What are the
advantages of having a nest in the center? What advantages
are there to the nests on the outside? If you were a penguin,
where would you build your nest?
Nests measure about 1 meter center to center. Why
aren’t they closer together, why not further apart?
These birds are on eggs. Which way do you think the
wind is blowing?
These birds are in the middle of a large snow storm and
both have chicks in their nests. Which way is the wind
blowing?
This chick is about 1 week old. If the second egg hatched now,
the new chick would be very small and weak compared to the first
one. What chance do you think a second chick would have for
survival?
For more field pictures and inquiry questions to
solve go to our website and the Field Notes Activity:
www.penguinscience.com/education/field_notes.php
Other PowerPoint presentations for you classroom:
1. Introduction to the Polar regions, Why is Antarctica so cold?
2. Introduction to Adélie Penguins, Adélie Penguins march into
the classroom
3. Penguin Adaptations, This is a harsh continent
4. Adélie Penguin Behavior, Good manners are always in style
5. Penguin Predation and Competition, Life is tough for an Adélie
Penguin
6. Adélie Penguins Cope with Global Climate Change
7. Did You Know, How researchers know what they know
8. Penguin Quandaries, Can you answer these mysteries
9. Fun pictures about Adélie Penguin
Go to www.penguinscience.com The education page.
To learn more about
Adélie Penguins go to
www.penguinscience.com