King penguins in zoos: relating breeding success to husbandry practices

Published source details Schweizer S., Stoll P., von Houwald F. & Baur B. (2016) King penguins in zoos: relating breeding success to husbandry practices. Journal of Zoo and Aquarium Research, 4, 91-98.
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Summary

Use captive breeding to increase or maintain populations of seabirds

A replicated study in the 2007–2011 of zoos across Europe and the USA (Schweizer et al. 2016) reported that captive king penguins Aptenodytes patagonicus produced chicks in 12 of 12 surveyed zoos, and produced fledglings in 10. Each adult laid between 0.14 and 0.50 eggs/year. Between 7% and 46% of eggs hatched. For the 10 zoos that produced fledglings, 17%–100% of chicks fledged, meaning each adult produced 0.01–0.17 chicks/year. These data are all ranges. The study also examined relationships between breeding outcomes and husbandry practices. For example, zoos holding a higher density of king penguins produced more eggs/adult/year (see original paper for data) and zoos giving their penguins supervised outside walks had higher hatching success than zoos that did not (data not reported). Data for 2007–2011 were collected through a survey of zoos with unrestricted penguin breeding. This study includes some of the institutions mentioned in other summary paragraphs, although not necessarily over the same time period.

Artificially incubate and hand-rear seabirds in captivity

A replicated study in 2007–2011 of 12 zoos across Europe and the USA (Schweizer et al. 2016) found that artificial incubation and hand rearing of king penguins Aptenodytes patagonicus had similar success levels to incubation and rearing by captive parents. Hatching success (% eggs hatched) did not significantly differ between artificially incubated eggs (n = 3 zoos) and parentally incubated eggs (n = 9 zoos). Fledging success (% chicks fledged) did not significantly differ between hand-reared chicks (n = 2 zoos) and parent-reared chicks (n = 10 zoos). Data were not reported. They were collected through a survey of zoos breeding king penguins, covering breeding in 2007–2011.