06 May 2023

Royal penguins have fantastic fathers (Australia)

850,000 pairs of penguins during the breeding season
Doug Gimesy, Weekend Australian

Ever since holidaying in Phillip Island Victoria (see map below), I've loved Fairy Penguin colonies. They parade each night on the beach where visitors see thousands of penguins make their way from sea to shore, to tend to their burrows.

Now different penguins.. on a different island. Macquarie Island is in the Southern Ocean, SE of Tasmania and halfway to Antarc­t­ica. Macquarie Island has outstanding universal value. Firstly it pro­v­ides a unique opportunity to study geological features and proc­esses of oceanic crust formation. Sec­ond, its remote and wind­swept lands­cape of steep cliffs, lakes and dramatic vegetation provide wild, natural beauty plus great wildlife.

The island lies in Furious Fifties latitudes, called that due to the VERY strong winds and stormy seas. A coastal terrace supp­orts vast waterlogged and vegetated areas which vary from lush gr­ass­land to sparse­ness within metres. This is fram­ed by steep escarp­ments which rise to a pla­t­eau dotted with lakes.

The vast wildlife communities, mainly Royal Penguins in the breeding season, are special. Their populations on Macq­u­arie Island and nearby Bishop and Clerk Is­lets, have climbed back up to c850,000+ pairs, one of the best communities of seabirds in the world. On the nearby islets, another c1,000 pairs breed. Peng­uins at Macq­uarie Island live in very large colonies, on rocky or pebbly beaches, for half the year.

Royal peng­uins are named for bright yellow plumes on their heads that resemble crowns. It takes several years for the pl­umes to fully meet so old­er penguins have lusher plumes.

Royal penguins have bright yellow plumes on their heads that resemble crowns
Australian Antarctic Programme

Royal penguins reach sexual maturity at a year. The breeding cycle is highly synchronised and st­arts when the males arrive in late-Sept to create small hollow nests in the rocks. The fem­ales ar­r­ive a fortnight later when males can begin their mating dis­pl­ays. They form monogamous breeding pairs and lay two eggs each in mid-Oct. One of the eggs is push­ed from the nest and mostly dies, and the other is in­cub­ated by both parents for a month. Why does this action happen?

Royals were heavily exploited in C19th; human impacts st­art­­ed on Macquarie Island in 1810, causing ma­jor changes to the reserve. The commercial exploit­ation of seals and penguins, tog­et­her with the introduction of alien sp­ecies, resul­ted in major de­clines, or the extinction of some native species.

Before hunting start­ed there were 3 million penguins. But then between 1870-1919 the Tasman­ian Govt iss­ued hunting licen­ces, with 150,000 penguins taken each year for their oil. At the industry’s 1905 peak, the plant establ­ished on the Island was pr­oc­essing 2000 peng­uins at a time, with each pen­guin yielding .5 litre of oil.

Active management programmes since the 1960s aimed at stop­ping or reversing these trends. Some program­mes have resulted in very rapid changes eg the eradication of feral cats from the island. However the recovery of natural ecosystem processes may take ages. Thankfully Macquarie Island  is remote and well managed.

After the chick is hatched, parents take it in turn to care for it
Pinterest
     
Macquarie Island, its islets and surrounding wat­ers, are man­aged as a nature reserve by the Tasmanian Parks and Wild­life Serv­ice, guided by the Macquarie Island Nature Reserve and World Herit­age Area Management Plan 2006. By law, any action that has a significant impact on the World Herit­age values must be re­f­erred to the resp­on­sible Australian Min­ister, and large pen­alties apply. However the island is still vulnerable to climate change and introduced pests.

Royal penguins breed only on Macquarie Island and, like other pen­guins, spend much of their time at sea. They nest on beaches or on bare areas on veget­at­ion-covered slopes. Partners of incubating birds travel 600+ km from Macquarie Island and back again in 3 weeks. Incubation lasts c30-40 days and chicks start to hatch in early late Nov/early Dec and is looked after by the loving father while the mother fo­r­ages for food at sea. At about one month old, the chicks be­gin to group together for warmth and safety in crèches, freeing both parents to forage. When they are 2+ mon­ths old, they’ve grown their adult plumage and leave the colony to go to sea to forage themselves.

Map of SE Australia and New Zealand, including Macquarie Is
Antarctica Travel Centre 
 
The adults moult/drop feathers in Mar-Apr and then leave the is­land for c6 months over winter. It’s not known where they go dur­ing this time, although there’ve been sightings from Tas­mania to the Antarctic sector of the Sou­thern Ocean. Is their food supply stable in their second habitat?
 
Penguins hunt for krill, small fish and small crustaceans, diff­ering marginally between the island’s colonies. The penguins in turn may fall prey to eleph­ant seals, which themselves have notable colonies in the breeding season.       

Populations are almost stable today, but because plastic pollution and overfishing are still problematic in their habit­at, royal peng­uins are listed as Near Threat­en­ed. And climate change effects may severely impact the penguins’ food supply.          
    


14 comments:

roentare said...

Love your detailed history on Macquarie Island. I would love to visit these cute penguins one day.

Student of History said...

The main reference for this post was UNESCO World Heritage, Macquarie Island. Thank you.

My name is Erika. said...

This was a really informative post Hels. I knew there were penguins away from the Antarctic, but I didn't know they could be found in part of Australia. And how can anyone kill a penguin. But I do think people thought differently before, mainly because they had to. Thank goodness there's better management now. Enjoy your weekend.

hels said...

roentare
I know very little about biology, but I am very interested in the history of environmental issues. Imagine if this part of the world didn't protect its penguins.

hels said...

Thank you Student!! I'll be back in Melbourne on Monday and will add both references to the post I.e including the Antarctica.gov paper.

hels said...

Erika,
thank goodness for World Heritage Protection and for Active Management Programmes.
Now we only have to worry about climate change.

Parnassus said...

Hello Hels, Imagine killing one of these magnificent birds for a pint of oil! Do you know how the oil was used? I have heard of whale oil used and sold, even of special lamps meant to burn whale oil, but never penguin. Perhaps that was more in Australia and not exported northwards. People as a group have many ecological crimes to answer for, but I am glad at least some of the damage is being stayed. Do you know if there is any problem with poaching of penguins?*
--Jim
* Although I am sure that all of your readers now want to adopt that penguin chick!

Hels said...

Parnassus

Macquarie was home to 250,000 fur seals. It took the sealers, living on the island and hunting them year-round, a mere five years to wipe them out for their pelts, which fetched high prices in Europe and US.

Now read https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21501-boiled-to-death-penguins-are-back-from-the-brink/

100+ years ago, New Zealand blubber merchant Joseph Hatch made his fortune on Macquarie by boiling 3 million penguins to extract oil for lamps. Large colonies of penguins on the island seemed doomed. So we can see why it was popular. By the time an international campaign put an end to the carnage in 1919, there was just one small colony was left.

The birds owe their recovery to the hunting ban and reduced fishing in the area. The rabbits have eaten so much grass that they are exposing penguin chicks to attack by skua birds. Their grazing has also triggered landslips, one of which partly buried a penguin colony in 18 years ago. So Tasmanian scientists began eradicating rabbits. We are smarter now, but the threats continue.

jabblog said...

Thank you for introducing me to Royal penguins. It's good that positive efforts have been made to protect these birds. The cats have been dealt with and I imagine the rabbits must be eradicated. Introducing alien species has far-reaching consequences.

Viagens pelo Rio de Janeiro e Brasil. said...

Bom dia. São esverdeadas por causa da vegetação no entorno do Rio Iconha e das árvores.

hels said...

jabblog
we know that late 19th century people did not understand what alien species, over fishing, climate change and plastic pollution did to the native animals who had lived there forever. But now everybody on the planet with an IQ in double figures does know. So the protective work has to go on! And on!

hels said...

Luiz
Thanks for the response :) Is the green in the water clean and safe? As you can see, water cleanliness is an issue in the post as well.

Joe said...

There have been discussions about the impact of disease on the penguins, especially avian malaria and aspergillosis/mould infection. Where did these conditions come from?

Hels said...

Joe

Diseases and parasites of penguins, written by Judy Clarke and Knowles Kerry of the Australian Antarctic Division, presented a compilation of diseases and parasites recorded for all species of penguins present, both in the wild and in captivity!

This _very_ detailed article was published in Penguin Conservation, vol 13, #1, 2OOO.