African penguins (Spheniscus demersus) have been on a downward decline. In 2010, African penguins were placed on the Red List by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) signifying that they are endangered (Weller et al., 2014). African penguins are endemic to Southern Africa ranging from Namibia to South Africa (Weller et al., 2014). At the start of the twentieth century, African penguins constituted 570,000 breeding pairs, but at the end of the century the population decreased to 26,000 pairs, and finally, in the 1990s, there was a total of 18,000 adult penguins (Weller et al., 2014). Robben Island has the most inhabitants of African Penguins, starting with the initiation of nine breeding pairs in 1983, growing to 8,500 pairs …show more content…
Due to the season, the reintegration back into the wild presents additional difficulties for the birds since the birds have a high rate of fidelity, 80-94% (Wolfaardt et al., 2009). Breeding success will be affected because one partner could have died, or they could have been relocated to different areas and unable to reunite. African penguins breed faster when they have been a couple that has been together for a long period of time. The pair bond is partly due to the fact that African penguins can live for up to twenty years so they mature later, and as a result they are involved parents with a low clutch size of one to two eggs (Wolfaardt et al., 2009). If the pair is broken, then a female penguin will most likely miss a breeding season from not having their original mate, or not being able to travel back to their original breeding grounds, which results in negative breeding success and a lower population density. Typically, first time breeding penguins are more likely to stray away from their native colony if they recognize that there is a depletion of resources in their native colony or if they need to find their first mate; in other words, they do not have as many ties to their native colony as older birds do (Barham et al., 2006). At Robben Island, the fledging of non oiled birds under normal conditions was around 60%, whereas the fledging rate from oiled parents was 40% showing …show more content…
A concern with the oil is that only a little bit of oil is needed on the feathers to cause complications. The oil will decrease the waterproofing ability of the feather leading to hypothermia and the inability for the penguin to hold in heat (Wolfaardt et al., 2009). Oil can affect the penguins’ mucous membranes, such as the eyes, causing blindness, while also breaking down red blood cells leading to anemia and poor vitamin absorption (Bent, 2010). Although there are measures being taken to reduce damage to the penguin, the rescue attempt will not help the damage that has been done to the birds’ internal organs such as the liver, and the petroleum might also inhibit the production of certain hormones important for reproduction (Wolfaardt et al.,
On year 6, the rain level was in the right range for the whooping crane population, with the amount of rainfall at 8.1 cm, and the snowfall at 4.6 cm. This great weather resulted in 8 nests, 8 eggs laid, and 4 eggs hatched. It might not seem like a major population growth, but with this specific endangered species, its population growth isn’t as quick as many other species. This was the main reason why it brought the attention to many officials to protect the whooping cranes from extinction. In this particular year, the hatching success rate was at a 50%, which is surprising because this year was the one who brought up the population well, into year 7. The amount of rainfall in year 7 was 7.4cm, while the snowfall was 0.0cm. Once again, these were perfect conditions for the whooping cranes. This caused the overall crane population (including chicks), to increase by 8 cranes, from year 6 to year 7. The hatching success rate was a high of 83%, the highest it has ever been in the 16 years of data! You can obviously see here that these low precipitation conditions are very beneficial to the overall growth of this
For this evolution project, I choose to research Penguins. The classification for this animal is as follows: K Neornithes, P Palaeognathae, C Neognathae, O Pelecaniformes, F Procellariformes, G Graviidae, S Spheniscidae. The first fossil penguin that was found, is today being held in the British Museum of Natural History. It was reportedly found by an anonymous Maori in New Zealand in 1859 and was named Palaeeudyptes Antarcticus despite the fact that the species was located far away from Antarctica. Since that discovery many more fossils were found and were dated back to the Miocene era and three others from the Pliocene era. Several fossils were dated to the Late Pliocene era and others from the Recent era. The earliest avian fossil found in the southern hemisphere is said to have existed in the Eocene age about 38-54 million years ago. There is evidence that at least three of the modern penguins (Aptenodytes, Spheniscus and Pygoscelis) went extinct within the last 4-5 million years. The remainder of the penguins are from 5-40 million years ago, dating back to the time currently recorded, when penguins evolved from other modern birds. Research suggests that the tallest of these penguins were about 6 feet tall. Penguins did originate from an ancestor that flew some 40 million years ago. The common ancestor is assumed to have been somewhat similar to a modern-day diving petrel or auk in appearance and behavior.
When the Atlantic Puffin’s young becomes mature enough to leave the nest, it will wait until night to emerge. Often its first time out of the nest, the young puffin becomes acclimated to its surroundings and begins to descend the perilous cliff face. Once it reaches the bottom, it will quickly travel out to sea. It leaves the island alone and will not return to land for two to three years.
Like I said moments ago, the penguin is known to be witty, meticulous, inscrutable and they of course live on ice! First of all, I can be witty if I want to, and I spend half of my time on the ice. By that, I mean at the arena playing or practicing ringette. Ringette is a part of me and it always will be. I love the sound of my skate edge cutting into the ice. In addition to that, I love the way snow sprays off my skate when I make a quick stop as well. These are just some of the way that I can relate to a penguin. In conclusion to this paragraph, I am most like a penguin because I often enjoy the cold
will make you think, for example, the Penguin is put into a Zoo as a
When researching the population decline of amphibians as a global issue, it is evident that there have been drastic changes in the past 30 years. Mike Lannoo from the U.S. Declining Amphibian Task Force says that there have been significant losses in amphibian populations for an extensive period of time (No Single Reason, 1999). Stuart et al. (2004) stated that according to scientists at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), at least 427 species, roughly 7.4%, are at a dangerously high risk of extinction (Kaylor, 2006). The problem of amphibian decline cannot be linked directly to one single cause (No Single Reason, 1999). Instead, scientists have related the decline to disease, habitat loss, changes in climate, and pollution (Hayes, Falso, Gallipeau, Stice, 2010; Brooks et al., 2002; Dunson et al., 1992). It is concluded that many of these factors are related to and possibly caused by human interaction (McCallum, 2007). The declines could be caused by pathogens, climate change, or wildlife toxicology, says Dr. Ashley Mattoon from the Worldwatch Institute (Kirby, 2000).
Large amount of fish were reported dead in the thick brown mess. Pelicans and other bird where seen completely covered black which made their lives extremely hard. A small amount of oil on the birds feathers could leave the animal flightless and made it hard to swim and hunt for food. Scientists have discovered that pelicans nesting in Minnesota have been affected indirectly. These birds migrate to the Gulf every winter and were feeding on fish the winter after the spill occurred. They later went back to Minnesota to breed. Scientists saw that the eggs the birds were laying contained a chemical compound from the petroleum and dispersants. This may lead to reproductive problems down the road. The oil also killed an expediential amount of microscopic organisms including fish larvae. With these large amounts of eggs killed at once, the spill may have created gaps in the food chain. And the oil spill, even years later, still has lingering effects on the wildlife. There are many reports of fish that were born with deformities, and others that talk about groups of shrimp born without eyes. The impact of the oil spill stretches over 1,000 miles across the
Microevolution occurs when a species has almost insignificant genetic changes over time. The studies performed on these small genetic changes are usually tested over very short time periods (decades to a few hundred years). This is because it is difficult to find ancient DNA specimens to compare to the modern species. However, because of the frigid and preserving terrain Adelie penguins are the perfect research candidate. This specie of penguin lives, breeds, and dies all in the same location of their ancestors before them; leaving plenty of ancient remains. The researchers compared the DNA of the ancient (6,000-year-old penguins) to the modern descendants. This comparison revealed that some of the Adelie penguin genes became longer over time
The finch hybrids before the El Niño of 1983, two different species did not mate each other but during the child, a scandens mated with a fortis and produced four fledgings.
The other penguins live on small sandy islands, but all penguins must live near a body of water to hunt for food. Their food consist of fish krill squid and crustaceans. Penguins mainly live along the coastal regions of South America, Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. People still don’t know everything about penguins but we start to learn more about them as we study them. There is some spots we don’t know if its 100% true or fake. This is way people argue so much about them because we still don’t know everything about them. In the mid 1800s people found fossils that looked like penguins. These fossils were studied by the top scientist around the world. The scientist are coming to a conclusion that penguins have been on earth for more than 60 million years.Scientist believe that penguins evolved from earlier birds in order to survive. They
“And all the children who came to the zoo could see Tango and her two fathers playing in the penguin house…” (Richardson). This scene comes from the children’s book, And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell. This excerpt briefly tells that the theme of this story is about an unorthodox family structure that consists of a homosexual couple. Richard and Parnell use this picture book aimed for four to eight year olds to simply describe the real love story of two penguins, Silo and Roy, who can be found in New York’s Central Park Zoo. “Roy and Silo are both boys. However, they did everything together,” like a couple would do and they, “didn’t spend much time with the girl penguins.” When mating season came, they built a nest and tried to hatch an egg, but obviously, that was impossible. The zookeeper noticed this and brought Silo and Roy an egg from another couple that would not be able to take care of both the eggs they had. Eventually, Silo and Roy hatch a beautiful chick which the zookeeper named Tango; this created their little happy family.
Because of breeding, such endangered species, two examples of which being the golden lion tamarin and the Przewalski’s wild horse, have improved in numbers significantly (Smithsonian). Although they are bred in captivity, it protects and preserves the animals from s...
Climate change is the result of global warming and is a world-wide issue that is proving a threat to many living organisms. The Adélie end Emperor penguin which inhabit the Antarctic continent, are species of penguin that can be seen at most at risk of climate change due to this unnatural rise in global temperatures.
Peregrine falcons are found in every single part of the world except Antarctica. They were
In our world today we have approximately 26,021 endangered species. Endangered species are organisms that may possible become extinct. The term 'endangered species' refers to all species that fits this description. However some conservation biologists and scientists normally use the term ‘endangered species’ to refer to species that are put on the IUCN(International Union for Conservation of Nature)Red List. Many factors can be looked at when considering the conservation status of a species. Factors such as human threats or environmental threats can cause a species to become endangered.