Short underwater opening of beak following immersion in seven penguin species

Video camera recordings of seven species of penguin, Emperor (Aptenodytes forsteri), Humboldt (Spheniscus humboldti), Adelie (Pygoscelis adeliae), Chinstrap (P. antarctica), Gentoo (P. papua), Macaroni (Eudyptes chrysolophus) and Rockhopper (E. chrysocome) swimming in large aquaria revealed that bir...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Condor
Main Authors: Ropert-Coudert, Y., Kato, A., Wilson, Rory P., Kurita, M.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: American Ornithological Society 2002
Subjects:
Antarc*
Antarctica
Aptenodytes forsteri
Eudyptes chrysolophus
Pygoscelis adeliae
Online Access:https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/4419/
https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/4419/1/condor0444.pdf
https://doi.org/10.1093/condor/104.2.444
Description
Summary:Video camera recordings of seven species of penguin, Emperor (Aptenodytes forsteri), Humboldt (Spheniscus humboldti), Adelie (Pygoscelis adeliae), Chinstrap (P. antarctica), Gentoo (P. papua), Macaroni (Eudyptes chrysolophus) and Rockhopper (E. chrysocome) swimming in large aquaria revealed that birds opened their beak underwater for less than a second immediately after initiating a dive. Overall, this beak-opening occurred in 64% of the immersions but, in all species, was associated with quick transitions between air and water, such as in porpoising or dives that were initiated rapidly. Two hypotheses are proposed to explain this behavior: beak-opening may be a signal that initiates bradycardia, such as is observed in unrestrained diving animals or beak-opening may be associated with chemoreception to help detect potential prey or predators.

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