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Penguins Harmed by Tracking Bands, Study Finds
Benoit Gineste, CNRS / IPEV
By SINDYA N. BHANOO
Published: January 14, 2011
Bands attached to penguins’ flippers have helped scientists track their movement and migration for 50 years. The small identification tags are visible to researchers through binoculars from 100 feet away. Now, a new study reports that the seemingly innocuous bands have a significant effect on penguin mortality.
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Over a decade, flipper-banded penguins produced 39 percent fewer chicks and had a 16 percent lower survival rate, compared with penguins that did not have bands but had microchips inserted under the skin, according to the study, which appears in the journal Nature.
That’s because the bands cause drag as penguins swim, and they are unable to gather food as efficiently for themselves or their chicks, said Claire Saraux , the study’s lead author and a biologist at the French National Center for Scientific Research and the University of Strasbourg.
Dr. Saraux and her colleagues monitored 100 king penguins, half with flipper bands, on Possession Island in the sub-Antarctic Crozet Archipelago.
How well penguins are doing is thought to be an indicator of climate change, so a better monitoring system could be critical.
“If we stopped marking, we wouldn’t have any way of measuring how birds are being affected by the climate, or anything else,” said Rory P. Wilson, a zoologist at Swansea University in Britain who has studied penguins for 30 years.
One solution might be to use microchips, as Dr. Saraux and her colleagues did. The chips were inserted under the penguins’ skin, and weigh significantly less than a band. Sensors installed around the penguins’ colony tracked the penguins’ movements.
“The major difference is that the tag is under the skin and you have no external mark,” Dr. Saraux said. “The band has a huge drag effect.”
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Benoit Gineste, CNRS / IPEVBy SINDYA N. BHANOO
Published: January 14, 2011
Bands attached to penguins’ flippers have helped scientists track their movement and migration for 50 years. The small identification tags are visible to researchers through binoculars from 100 feet away. Now, a new study reports that the seemingly innocuous bands have a significant effect on penguin mortality.
Related
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- More Observatory Columns
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Get Science News From The New York Times » Over a decade, flipper-banded penguins produced 39 percent fewer chicks and had a 16 percent lower survival rate, compared with penguins that did not have bands but had microchips inserted under the skin, according to the study, which appears in the journal Nature.
That’s because the bands cause drag as penguins swim, and they are unable to gather food as efficiently for themselves or their chicks, said Claire Saraux , the study’s lead author and a biologist at the French National Center for Scientific Research and the University of Strasbourg.
Dr. Saraux and her colleagues monitored 100 king penguins, half with flipper bands, on Possession Island in the sub-Antarctic Crozet Archipelago.
How well penguins are doing is thought to be an indicator of climate change, so a better monitoring system could be critical.
“If we stopped marking, we wouldn’t have any way of measuring how birds are being affected by the climate, or anything else,” said Rory P. Wilson, a zoologist at Swansea University in Britain who has studied penguins for 30 years.
One solution might be to use microchips, as Dr. Saraux and her colleagues did. The chips were inserted under the penguins’ skin, and weigh significantly less than a band. Sensors installed around the penguins’ colony tracked the penguins’ movements.
“The major difference is that the tag is under the skin and you have no external mark,” Dr. Saraux said. “The band has a huge drag effect.”
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