Meeting Abstract
Many species of penguins are sensitive to dimethyl sulphide (DMS), a scented compound that a variety of marine animals use to find productive areas of the ocean where prey is likely to be found. Here we show that King penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus) are also sensitive to DMS. Near a King penguin colony at Ratmanoff beach in the Kerguelen archipelago we deployed DMS on a lake and monitored the number of birds swimming in a well-defined area. We also presented DMS to sleeping adults on the beach. Penguins swam more in the presence of DMS on the lake, but did not respond to cod liver oil deployments. These results mirror at-sea studies of other penguins. On the beach, sleeping birds twitched their heads and woke up more for the DMS than for the control presentations. In the future we hope to confirm that King penguins use DMS as a surface cue that informs them of productivity under the water by deploying odours at sea. However, this study is an important first step in understanding how these birds locate prey over significant distances.
