To learn about the diet and habitat of Gentoo penguins, experts attached a camera to a male and recorded its hunting journey.
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Argentina released a special “selfie” video on January 20 to celebrate this year’s Penguin Awareness Day. The video captures the scene of a Gentoo penguin diving into a massive school of sardines and swimming in the Beagle Channel area, southern Argentina.
Gentoo penguins typically forage near the ocean floor, but the new footage shows that they will also prey on schools of sardines near the surface when the opportunity arises.
“We have stated in many studies that the seabird community in the Beagle Channel preys on sardines, but this is real evidence, confirmed with a ‘star’ behind the camera: the penguin,” said Andrea Raya Rey, a researcher at WCS Argentina and the CADIC-CONICET research center of the Argentine government.
Gentoo penguins are the third largest penguin species, reaching up to 90 cm in height, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). They inhabit areas around Antarctica, extending to southern South America.
The research team at CADIC-CONICET attached a special waterproof camera called PenguinCam to a male Gentoo penguin as part of a collaborative research project with WCS Argentina, the Antarctic Research Fund, and the Tawaki Project. This is part of a long-term effort by WCS and partner organizations to understand the feeding and spatial needs of penguins, aiding in their conservation.
Gentoo penguins also prey on schools of sardines near the surface when the opportunity arises.
The camera recorded the process of the male Gentoo penguin swimming through the school of sardines to catch individual fish. The video also shows other penguins hunting, as well as cormorants and albatrosses diving from above to catch fish.
The research team removed the PenguinCam when the penguin returned from its hunting trip. They also monitored the nest to ensure it was not affected by this experience. “The Gentoo penguin continues its duties as a father and takes care of its chicks,” Raya Rey noted.
