Sex identification in King Penguins Aptenodytes patagonicus through morphological and acoustic cues

• Published in: Ibis
• Main Authors: Kriesell, Hannah, Aubin, Thierry, Planas-Bielsa, Victor, Benoiste, Marine, Bonadonna, Francesco, Gachot-Neveu, Hélène, Le Maho, Yvon, Schull, Quentin, Vallas, Benoit, Zahn, Sandrine, Le Bohec, Céline
• Other Authors: Laboratoire de Biologie Polaire, Département Ecologie, Physiologie et Ethologie (DEPE-IPHC), Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien (IPHC), Université de Strasbourg (UNISTRA)-Université de Haute-Alsace (UHA) Mulhouse - Colmar (Université de Haute-Alsace (UHA))-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Strasbourg (UNISTRA)-Université de Haute-Alsace (UHA) Mulhouse - Colmar (Université de Haute-Alsace (UHA))-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), LEA BioSensib, Centre Scientifique de Monaco, Institut des Neurosciences Paris-Saclay (NeuroPSI), Université Paris-Sud - Paris 11 (UP11)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (CEFE), Université Paul-Valéry - Montpellier 3 (UPVM)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Centre international d'études supérieures en sciences agronomiques (Montpellier SupAgro)-École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD Occitanie )-Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier (Montpellier SupAgro), Université Louis Pasteur - Strasbourg I-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Louis Pasteur - Strasbourg I-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université de Strasbourg (UNISTRA)-Université de Haute-Alsace (UHA) Mulhouse - Colmar (Université de Haute-Alsace (UHA))-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: CCSD 2018
• Subjects: morphology; penguins; seabird; sexing methods; sexual selection; vocal sex recognition; [SDE]Environmental Sciences; Kerguelen; Kerguelen Island; The Beak; King Penguins
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-01721443; https://doi.org/10.1111/ibi.12577

International audience In the context of sexual selection, animals have developed a variety of cues conveying informationabout the sex of an individual to conspecifics. In many colonial seabird species,where females and males are monomorphic and do not show obvious differences in externalmorphology, acoustic cues are an important signal for individual and sex recognition. Here,we study the vocal and morphological sex dimorphism in the King Penguin Aptenodytespatagonicus, a colonial, monomorphic seabird for which our knowledge about the role ofvocalizations and morphology in mate choice is very limited. Data were collected at PossessionIsland, Crozet Archipelago, in a breeding colony consisting of about 16 000 breedingpairs. Using measurements of six morphological features and analysing acoustic parametersof call recordings of adult individuals, we show that King Penguins can be sexed based on asingle morphological measurement of the beak with an accuracy of 79%. We found a sexspecificsyntax in adult King Penguin calls that provided a 100% accurate method to distinguishbetween the sexes in our study population. To confirm the method at the specieslevel, we analysed calls recorded from King Penguin adults in Kerguelen Island, 1300 kmaway from our study population and found the same accuracy of the sex-specific syntax.This sex-specific syllable arrangement is rare in non-passerines and is a first step in understandingthe mate choice process in this species. Furthermore, it offers a cost-effective, noninvasivetechnique for researchers to sex King Penguins in the field.