How a penguin ‘divorce' can impact a whole colony
What we know about little blue penguins
Little blue penguins (Eudyptula minor)—also known as little penguins or fairy penguins—are the world's smallest species of penguin, growing to an average of just 12 inches high.
Phillip Island, southwest of Melbourne, is home to around 30,000 of these tiny birds. 'It has the world's largest colony of little penguins,' says Richard Reina, a biologist at Monash University and coauthor of the new study published in Ecology and Evolution exploring the surprising repercussions of penguin divorce.
After a day foraging at sea, the tiny birds return to their burrows in the hillside. Some of the colony live in special nesting boxes and are microchipped, just like a pet cat or dog, so scientists can easily scan them to collect data on any of the birds in the box.
'You can just put a reader and go 'blip' and it tells you who's at home,' says Wilson, who wasn't involved in the study.
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