Penguins have the reputation of being particularly faithful animals. But as scientists have just discovered it, their romantic relationships are much more complex and worthy of the worst sentimental series.
Penguins are known to be extremely loyal animals in love, because they mate with the same partner for many years, sometimes for life. They are a model of love devotion in the animal kingdom, in the same way as the swans. However, behind this foolproof conjugal fidelity, The reality is much more eventful, with stories of separation, infidelity and frantic quests of great love. In short, a real soap opera!
Researchers have observed for ten years the penguins of Phillip Island (Australia), which now houses nearly 37,000 specimens. And the least we can say is that loyalty is not always there! Little by little, the island took on the air of the temptation island, with a rise in “divorce” rates in these birds, however supposed to be models of stability.
Why so many separations? Simply because some penguins consider their partner too ineffective on the reproductive level. A season without enough small, and presto, goodbye! In the event of insufficient number of young, some change companions in the hope of obtaining better results the following season. They then set out in search of a new companion, hoping to improve their chances of success the following year.
“In favorable periods, they remain mainly faithful to their partners, even if there is often a little infidelity in parallel”explains Richard Reina, co-author of the study and researcher at Monash University. “However, after a bad breeding season, they can seek a new partner for the following season to improve their reproductive success. We have recorded nearly 250 penguin divorces among around 1,000 couples studied, and we found that the Years with a lower divorce rate corresponded to a better reproductive success. “
This phenomenon, formerly marginal, worries specialists. Indeed, each divorce leads to a precious waste of time: instead of devoting itself to reproduction, the penguins must look for a new partner, execute nuptial parades – And without meeting an app to simplify their task! Result: it delays, even prevents, Reproduction.
If Poussins there is, a discrepancy compromises their chances of survival, because parents can find themselves having to seek food for their offspring at periods when food resources are rarer. Not to mention that the new couples can find it difficult to coordinate to perform complex tasks such as the construction of the nest, the incubation of the eggs and the breeding of the chicks, unlike the long -standing established couples, which end up forming a well -established team. This is why penguins that remain together for several seasons are a reproductive success which tends to increase over time.
This is not the first time that we have witnessed the hectic sentimental life of penguins. Kyoto aquariums have been having fun for several years now documenting the romantic adventures of their residents, and as much to say that it is complicated! They are downright obliged to publish diagrams to document the multiple conquests and other ruptures within these birds. The twists and turns are worthy of a TV series! In 2020, the relationship between grandfather Kama, the oldest penguin in the aquarium, and Saya, the granddaughter of the sister of grandfather Kama, who is nevertheless 17 years older, had made a lot of noise. Who said that love stories were simpler in animals?
Producers of Love is blind, High voltage seduction And The Villa of Broken Hearts can tremble: penguins already have their own reality TV, and it is played with love parades and marital dramas. Like what, even in the animal kingdom, finding love (and keeping it) is far from easy!