Penguin parenting : assortative mating, nest attendance and sex-specific chick provisioning in the African Penguin (Spheniscus demersus)

• Main Author: Smith, Diane Lauren
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Rhodes University 2016
• Subjects: African penguin; Penguins > South Africa; Penguins > Sexual behavior; Parental behavior in animals; Bird Island
• Online Access: http://vital.seals.ac.za:8080/vital/access/manager/Repository/vital:5943; http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1019993

Animal behaviour is especially sensitive to environmental variability and prey availability during the breeding season, and this is particularly true for non-volant, central place foragers such as the endangered African Penguin (Spheniscus demersus). Individual sex and morphology, as well as the lev...