Important Bird Area
A 500 ha site on fast ice that forms in the Weddell Sea near the Dawson-Lambton Glacier has been designated an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports a breeding colony of emperor penguins, with an estimate of some 2,600 individuals based on 2009 satellite imagery. [2]
As well as the emperor penguin colony that was discovered have multiple examples of beak deformity in the baby chicks that have been noted by FST (fixation index). The chicks that have been investigated with these deformations in their beaks have been proved to be in good health, since they could be still fed. However, this could be a problem when the chicks grow up and need to catch their own food in the ocean with their beaks. Pütz & Plötz (1991) Review the beak deformity’s on the baby penguins as they note that it is common for domesticated birds to experience this but it’s uncommon to be noted in the wild. These deformity’s could be formed due to ‘congenital defects, deficiency diseases, parasitic infections, injuries, or unusual feeding of the chick.’ Very few of the 42 or known Emperor penguin colonies (Woehler 1993) have been visited by examiners, which is why the conclusion that has been brought up is that this may be a normal amount of deformations that are devolved by this species. [3]
This page is based on this
Wikipedia article Text is available under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
