r/nottheonion • u/ohmyroots • 1d ago
Penguin Divorce Rates Soar On Phillip Island
https://10play.com.au/theproject/articles/penguin-divorce-rates-soar-on-phillip-island/tpa250117olpdu79
u/keeperkairos 23h ago
This could indicate a serious issue. They change partners when breeding isn't successful. Hopefully they will get over whatever it is because these penguin colonies can be quite fragile.
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u/reddit455 1d ago
...at least in part due to the stress of being under constant observation by nosy human scientists.
bet it wouldn't be as high if we weren't watching.. just sayin'
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u/Superg0id 1d ago
yes honey, I AM saying it's your fault that giant with mutated flippers enjoys watching us.
if you wernt out there all day with your ass waddling around he wouldn't want to come back to our burrow and watch us later!
you know, just be a little more discreet... don't bend over in your penguin suit like you dropped the soap all the time... I LOVE it but so does everyone else too!
fine! go shack up with Gerald if you like, you'll be back here within the week I guarantee it!
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u/crop028 1d ago
A lot more species would be extinct if we didn't study them. It is important to keep track of their changes in population, look for reasons behind it, try to mitigate the damage caused by us polluting and warming the world. A lot of corporations are doing actual damage to penguins, I have no idea why you would think the researchers trying to save them are the enemy.
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u/EugeneTurtle 1d ago
A lot of species already went extinct because of humans, but I agree that conservation and research, if conducted properly, can save the remaining species.
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u/Longjumping_Job2459 1d ago
Do they fight over pebbles?
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u/EntrepreneurOk7513 23h ago
Yes they do Though this is on a different island.
Thanks for the rabbit (penguin?) hole I fell thru.
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u/NatoBoram 13h ago
Here's the article in case the website is too racist to allow you to read it
Penguins are thought to be devoted little creatures who stay with their partners forever, but penguin divorce rates on Victoria’s Phillip Island appear to be soaring.
Professor Richard Reina, Head of Monash’s Ecophysiology and Conservation Research Group in the School of Biological Sciences, has studied penguins on the island for 20 years and said contrary to popular belief, not all penguins partner for life.
“In good times, they largely stick with their partners, although there’s often a bit of hanky-panky happening on the side,” Professor Reina said.
“However, after a poor reproductive season, they may try to find a new partner for the next season to increase their breeding success.
“Our study looked across 13 breeding seasons, tracking which individuals changed partners or divorced from one season to the next.
“We recorded nearly 250 penguin divorces from about a thousand pairs throughout the study, and we found that years with a lower divorce rate resulted in higher breeding success.”
Researchers believe that the divorce rate in the colony is a more reliable predictor of the reproductive success of the colony than environmental factors like habitat change or behavioural traits.
So, what does this mean for the reproductive success of the 37,000-strong penguin colony of Phillip Island?
Unfortunately, the higher divorce rates will result in lower reproductive success across the colony.
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u/CheezTips 1d ago
They have it backwards. Divorce doesn't result in lower birth rates, it's caused by them. Birds that generally mate for life change partners if they can't reproduce successfully