Spy cameras reveal penguins’ underwater hunting skills
23 Jan 2013 6:16 AM IST
Miniature cameras attached to Antarctic penguins have captured the bird's speedy underwater hunting skills, Japanese scientists say.
Intimate details of feeding behaviour, filmed using video cameras and accelerometers attached to free-swimming Adelie penguin, provided a unique insight into the birds' hunting techniques. Adelie penguins adopted different strategies depending on whether they were hunting fish or krill, 'BBC Nature' reported.
‘Foraging is the most basic activity of animals, but details of foraging behaviour are poorly known, especially in marine animals,’ lead scientist Dr Yuuki Watanabe from the National Institute of Polar Research in Tokyo said.
The penguins' foraging area is largely covered by marine ice and their primary food sources include two species of krill and Pagothenia borchgrevinki - a fish whose blood contains antifreeze proteins.
Intimate details of feeding behaviour, filmed using video cameras and accelerometers attached to free-swimming Adelie penguin, provided a unique insight into the birds' hunting techniques. Adelie penguins adopted different strategies depending on whether they were hunting fish or krill, 'BBC Nature' reported.
‘Foraging is the most basic activity of animals, but details of foraging behaviour are poorly known, especially in marine animals,’ lead scientist Dr Yuuki Watanabe from the National Institute of Polar Research in Tokyo said.
The penguins' foraging area is largely covered by marine ice and their primary food sources include two species of krill and Pagothenia borchgrevinki - a fish whose blood contains antifreeze proteins.
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