Foot Color Changes with Age in Magellanic, Humboldt, and Galápagos Penguins

WELLINGTON, PEARL; CAPELLO, CAROLINE; GARCIA BORBOROGLU, P.; SAMARAS, JOHN; HOLT, K. A.; MERLEN, GODFREY; REBSTOCK, GINGER; BOERSMA, DEE

Dunedin

Congreso; International Penguin Congress; 2019

University of Otago

Once penguins have adult plumage we have no way to determine their age. In Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) at Punta Tombo, Argentina (over 60,000 banded, age: hatch-32 years), we observed that foot color blackens with age. We scored foot color variation in known-age penguins banded as chicks or juveniles. In Magellanic, Humboldt (S. humboldti), and Galápagos (S. mendiculus) penguins we documented that foot color starts as white and eventually becomes black for most individuals. Feet darkened the most rapidly in Galápagos penguins with birds in juvenile plumage (typically