Meeting Abstract
Penguins are charismatic birds that people want to see in the wild. How such tourist visitation affects birds at breeding colonies worldwide has been the focus of extensive study. In Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) we have shown that penguins appear relatively robust to tourist visitation. There are, however, some interesting physiological impacts on penguins that experience tourist visits, particularly in colonies with higher levels and a longer history of visitation. We compared two colonies with different levels and history of tourism, and show that in eggs laid in the tourist area of the most visited Magellanic penguin colony in Argentina – Punta Tombo – recently hatched chicks show an unexpectedly high glucocorticoid stress response, regardless of where the eggs were incubated/hatched (as determined via egg exchange studies). In contrast, both in eggs laid in areas at Punta Tombo without tourist visits, and in eggs in both tourist-visited and un-visited areas at a less extensively visited Argentine colony – San Lorenzo – eggs produce chicks with the expected low “hyporesponsive” glucocorticoid stress response regardless of where they are hatched. We discuss the potential of this phenomenon as an epigentic effect passed to chicks from parents. Future research will be directed to determine the potential causes and effects of this response.
