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A healthy, premoult adult king penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus) with a markedly twisted beak

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2017

Alexandre Corbeau  and
Charles-André Bost
Alexandre Corbeau
Affiliation:
Centre d’Études Biologiques de Chizé, CNRS UMR 7372 – Université de La Rochelle, 405 Route de La Canauderie, 79360 Villiers-en-Bois, France (alexandre.corbeau@hotmail.fr)
Charles-André Bost
Affiliation:
Centre d’Études Biologiques de Chizé, CNRS UMR 7372 – Université de La Rochelle, 405 Route de La Canauderie, 79360 Villiers-en-Bois, France (alexandre.corbeau@hotmail.fr)
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Extract

In seabirds, diet and feeding methods are related to the species morphology (Croxall, Evans, & Schreiber, 1984). Species that feed on living, mobile resources rely on a fully operational beak to efficiently seize, kill and swallow their prey. This is particularly important to diving species, such as penguins, that are highly time constrained when searching for prey at depth—as air-breathing predators, penguins must maximise their feeding efficiency during their deep foraging dives (Wilson & Wilson, 1990). This is why the observation of free-ranging penguins with physical abnormalities in good body condition is so rare. Here we report a highly unusual observation of a premoult adult king penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus Miller) in good body condition with a highly anomalous beak.

Type
Note
Information
Polar Record , Volume 53 , Issue 6 , November 2017 , pp. 631 - 632
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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