Biomaterial Database

Night diving by some emperor penguins during the winter breeding period at Cape Washington. 2018

Gerald L Kooyman, and Robert P van Dam, and Luis A Hückstädt

Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Scholander Hall, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA gkooyman@ucsd.edu.

All through the bird literature and feature films, there is much ado about dedicated emperor penguin males fasting for 115 days while they do all the incubation of the single egg. Sometimes, they may not fast for so long. Based on a winter visit to Cape Washington, we obtained evidence that some birds may feed before the egg is laid, and if they do, and some are males, then their fast is much less than 115 days. The consequence of a shorter fast for the male is a better chance of completing the 65 day incubation fast and success in fledging the chick. For those in northern colonies that may migrate south, there will be closer access to open water, but there will be the need to dive in the dark.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D008297	Male		Males
D009425	Nesting Behavior	Animal behavior associated with the nest; includes construction, effects of size and material; behavior of the adult during the nesting period and the effect of the nest on the behavior of the young.	Behavior, Nesting,Behaviors, Nesting,Nesting Behaviors
D002940	Circadian Rhythm	The regular recurrence, in cycles of about 24 hours, of biological processes or activities, such as sensitivity to drugs or environmental and physiological stimuli.	Diurnal Rhythm,Nyctohemeral Rhythm,Twenty-Four Hour Rhythm,Nycthemeral Rhythm,Circadian Rhythms,Diurnal Rhythms,Nycthemeral Rhythms,Nyctohemeral Rhythms,Rhythm, Circadian,Rhythm, Diurnal,Rhythm, Nycthemeral,Rhythm, Nyctohemeral,Rhythm, Twenty-Four Hour,Rhythms, Circadian,Rhythms, Diurnal,Rhythms, Nycthemeral,Rhythms, Nyctohemeral,Rhythms, Twenty-Four Hour,Twenty Four Hour Rhythm,Twenty-Four Hour Rhythms
D004242	Diving	An activity in which the organism plunges into water. It includes scuba and bell diving. Diving as natural behavior of animals goes here, as well as diving in decompression experiments with humans or animals.	Divings
D005247	Feeding Behavior	Behavioral responses or sequences associated with eating including modes of feeding, rhythmic patterns of eating, and time intervals.	Dietary Habits,Eating Behavior,Faith-based Dietary Restrictions,Feeding Patterns,Feeding-Related Behavior,Food Habits,Diet Habits,Eating Habits,Behavior, Eating,Behavior, Feeding,Behavior, Feeding-Related,Behaviors, Eating,Behaviors, Feeding,Behaviors, Feeding-Related,Diet Habit,Dietary Habit,Dietary Restriction, Faith-based,Dietary Restrictions, Faith-based,Eating Behaviors,Eating Habit,Faith based Dietary Restrictions,Faith-based Dietary Restriction,Feeding Behaviors,Feeding Pattern,Feeding Related Behavior,Feeding-Related Behaviors,Food Habit,Habit, Diet,Habit, Dietary,Habit, Eating,Habit, Food,Habits, Diet,Pattern, Feeding,Patterns, Feeding,Restrictions, Faith-based Dietary
D005260	Female		Females
D000818	Animals	Unicellular or multicellular, heterotrophic organisms, that have sensation and the power of voluntary movement. Under the older five kingdom paradigm, Animalia was one of the kingdoms. Under the modern three domain model, Animalia represents one of the many groups in the domain EUKARYOTA.	Animal,Metazoa,Animalia
D000864	Antarctic Regions	The continent lying around the South Pole and the southern waters of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. It includes the Falkland Islands Dependencies. (From Webster's New Geographical Dictionary, 1988, p55)	Antarctic Region,Southern Pacific Ocean,Antarctic,Antarctica
D012621	Seasons	Divisions of the year according to some regularly recurrent phenomena usually astronomical or climatic. (From McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, 6th ed)	Seasonal Variation,Season,Seasonal Variations,Variation, Seasonal,Variations, Seasonal
D046429	Spheniscidae	The sole family in the order Sphenisciformes, comprised of 17 species of penguins in six genera. They are flightless seabirds of the Southern Hemisphere, highly adapted for marine life.	Penguins,Sphenisciformes,Penguin