Penguin Personalities Help Them Cope with Climate Change

Penguin personalities may create for some diverse populations, but they also help these Antarctic birds cope with the effects of climate change, according to new research.

According to the Audubon Society, nearly half of all North American bird species are severely threatened by shifts in climate. As native habitats shrink and push them into unchartered territory, species like the Baltimore oriole, California gull and bald eagle will be forced to adapt, truly testing their limits. The threat reaches beyond North America and could have similar effects on global bird populations.

So naturally scientists are growing concerned for poor penguins, whose Antarctic ice habitat is rapidly melting from our warming world. Penguins spend 75 percent of their lives in the water, says Defenders of Wildlife, but they raise their young on land - land that is disappearing before their eyes.

But scientist John Cockrem, from the Institute of Veterinary, Animal and Biomedial Sciences at Massey University in New Zealand, suggests that a bird's individual personality could improve its chances of survival.

Cockrem studied differences in the level of a stress hormone, called corticosterone, which native little penguins (Eudyptula minor) secreted when exposed to stressful situations. The amount of corticosterone dictated a penguin's personality, whether it was proactive or reactive.

"There is considerable individual variation in corticosterone responses, and a stimulus that initiates a large response in one bird may initiate a small response in another bird," Cockrem wrote.

"Birds with low corticosterone responses and proactive personalities are likely to be more successful (have greater fitness) in constant or predictable conditions," he explained, "whilst birds with reactive personalities and high corticosterone responses will be more successful in changing or unpredictable conditions."

Though penguins like the emperor penguin seem to be marching towards extinction thanks to climate change, some believe that these flightless birds are not dying off, just moving to better real estate as their habitats become too inhabitable.

The new findings were presented at the American Physiological Society intersociety meeting "Comparative Approaches to Grand Challenges in Physiology" on Oct. 8.