According to IFL Science recently reported on an extremely interesting thing about penguins. First of all we need to know that in birds, the ability to identify individuals is mainly based on sound signals rather than visual signals, in most cases animals will hide in trees and therefore have cannot be easily distinguished with the naked eye. However, penguins are an exception to the above rule.
A flock of African penguins (Spheniscus demersus) kept at Zoomarine Italia – Marine Park near Rome, will answer how birds recognize each other.
Illustration photo.
According to Luigi Baciadonna, a psychologist who conducted research at the University of Turin, the small dots on the chests of these birds are very prominent. Each penguin has a different dot, allowing zookeepers to identify and keep an eye on the animals in their care. So do birds use these signs for the same purpose?
To test it, Baciadonna and colleagues set up a simple experiment at the park to explore. At feeding time, the penguins will be gently led into a small enclosure, at the end of the space are two life-sized photos of other penguins including a photo of the penguin’s mate. cover and the other is another member of its herd.
Finally, in the third test, the penguins were shown two pictures similar to the first test (with pictures of their mate and another member of the group). In this version, the researchers remove the dots from both images. And the birds don’t seem to recognize their mates.
It therefore appears that the ability to recognize other individuals of the same species is an ability held by a wider range of animals than previously thought. The study was published in the journal Animal Behavior.
