Say What? African Penguin Calls Decoded

Image Credit: “African penguin near Boulders Beach” by Paul Mannix, via Wikimedia

Scientists have known basic descriptions of penguin calls for years, but this week marks a new milestone in decoding animal languages. Along with being downright adorable, the African Penguin has always been known as a highly social and vocal seabird.

Researchers associated with the Smithsonian have studied and analyzed a large captive colony of African Penguins and they have some news for the rest of the world:

African Penguins have a lot to say.

Scientists collected audio and visual recordings from the penguins in order to take a closer look at the behavioral contexts in which calls were uttered to come up with vocal categories.

The results of their study show four basic vocalizations that were documented in adult penguins:

1) Contact Call: emitted by isolated birds

2) Agnostic Call: used in aggressive interactions

3) Ecstatic Display Song: uttered by single birds

4) Mutual Display Song: vocalized by pairs at their nest

On the other hand, scientists also identified two distinct vocalizations in young African Penguins. One such call is the “begging peep”, a call emitted by nesting chicks; while the other is a “begging moan”, a call vocalized by unweaned juveniles.

Pretty cool, huh?

According to a study published in Conservation Biology, acoustic activity explained 71% of the variation in nest abundance between penguin breeding sites and 88% of the change in colony size between years.

What exactly does this mean? When it comes to large seabird colonies, studying vocal activity is the most reliable way to evaluate conservation efficacy. And conservation is good for all.

You can check out the calls courtesy of PLOS media.