Artificially incubate and hand-rear penguins in captivity

Overall effectiveness category Unknown effectiveness (limited evidence)
Number of studies: 2
Share Tweet Email

View assessment score

How is the evidence assessed?

Effectiveness

41%
Certainty

15%
Harms

0%

Calculating overall effectiveness category

Background information and definitions

Artificial incubation involves removing eggs from incubating parents and using an incubator to hatch them. Techniques can be extremely complex, with precision humidity and temperature control and turning of the eggs to ensure correct development Hand-rearing can be used with chicks from artificially-incubated eggs or with chicks removed from parents after hatching and involves manually feeding chicks until independence. Both techniques can be used to encourage parents to produce more offspring, or when naturally-raised chicks and eggs have low survival.

Update: Since this action was assessed, we have summarized some additional studies testing this action. See Morten et al. (2017), Waldoch et al. (2012), Todd (1987), Healy (1978), Penney (1978), van Bocxstaele (1978).

Study locations

Key messages

Two replicated and controlled studies from South Africa found that hand-reared and released African penguins Spheniscus demersus had similar survival and breeding success as birds which were not orphaned and hand-reared.

About key messages

Key messages provide a descriptive index to studies we have found that test this intervention.

Studies are not directly comparable or of equal value. When making decisions based on this evidence, you should consider factors such as study size, study design, reported metrics and relevance of the study to your situation, rather than simply counting the number of studies that support a particular interpretation.

Supporting evidence from individual studies

A replicated study in the Western Cape, South Africa, in 1994-9 (Whittington 2003), found that orphaned African penguins Spheniscus demersus that were hand-reared and released had similar survival and breeding probabilities as naturally-fledged chicks (11% of 437 hand-reared chicks seen at colonies, 1% breeding, 2% found dead vs. 9%, 1% and 1% of 399 naturally-fledged chicks). Of 507 chicks that were hand-reared, 437 (86%) were successfully released into the wild. Survival of rehabilitated adults is discussed in ‘Clean birds following oil spills’ in ‘Threat: Pollution’.
Study and other actions tested
Referenced paper
Whittington P.A. (2003) Post-release survival of rehabilitated African penguins. Pages 8-17 in: D.C. Nel & P.A. Whittington (eds.) Rehabilitation of oiled African Penguins: a conservation success story. Birdlife South Africa and Avian Demography Unit, Cape Town.
A controlled and replicated study on Robben and Dassen Islands, South Africa (Barham et al. 2008), found that the survival to breeding age and breeding success of African penguins Spheniscus demersus during 2001-6 were similar for birds that were orphaned in the Treasure oil spill in 2000 and hand-reared, compared to birds that were not orphaned and hand-reared (1.6 chicks fledged/pair for 24 pairs with at least one hand-reared bird vs. 1.1 chicks fledged/pair for 227 pairs without hand-reared birds). The authors note that the sample size of hand-reared pairs was too small for statistical tests to determine significance.
Study and other actions tested
Referenced paper
Barham P.J., Underhill L.G., Crawford R.J.M., Altwegg R., Leshoro T.M., Bolton D.A., Dyer B.M. & Upfold L. (2008) The efficacy of hand-rearing penguin chicks: evidence from African penguins (Spheniscus demersus) orphaned in the Treasure oil spill in 2000. Bird Conservation International, 18, 144-152.

Please cite as:

Williams, D.R., Child, M.F., Dicks, L.V., Ockendon, N., Pople, R.G., Showler, D.A., Walsh, J.C., zu Ermgassen, E.K.H.J. & Sutherland, W.J. (2020) Bird Conservation. Pages 137-281 in: W.J. Sutherland, L.V. Dicks, S.O. Petrovan & R.K. Smith (eds) What Works in Conservation 2020. Open Book Publishers, Cambridge, UK.

Where has this evidence come from?

List of journals searched by synopsis

All the journals searched for all synopses

This Action forms part of the Action Synopsis:

Bird Conservation

Related Actions

Actions	Effectiveness	Studies	Category
Wash contaminated semen and use it for artificial insemination Action Link	Unknown effectiveness (limited evidence)	1	Synopsis Link
Use captive breeding to increase or maintain populations of songbirds Action Link	Unknown effectiveness (limited evidence)	3	Synopsis Link
Use captive breeding to increase or maintain populations of cranes Action Link	Unknown effectiveness (limited evidence)	1	Synopsis Link