Feeding behavior of rockhopper penguin (Eudyptes chrysocome) in captivity

Abstract

The feeding behaviour of 19 pengums (10 males and nme females) Ropckhopper penguin (Eudyptes chrysocome) was studied at Underwater World Langkawi. The average air temperature in the tank was 16.04 °c and the average water temperature was 8.28 ° C. All the penguins were fed twice a day, at 10 am and 3 pm with Sardines (Decapterus maruadsi). The objectives of this study were to determine the daily fish intake of captive Rockhopper penguin, to compare the fish intake between males and females Rockhopper penguin and to study the correlation between the timing of molting to the body weight changes. Comparison between morning (41901 ± 457 fishes) and evening (37465 ± 404 fishes) fish intake showed no significant difference (I-test, t = 1.33, df = 46). In term of sexes, male penguins consumed slightly more (38287 ± 484 fishes) than female penguins (36973 ± 417 fishes) but did not exhibit significant difference in the amount of fish intake (t-test, t = 0.42, df = 46). The average weight for male penguins (3.044 ± 0.259 kg) did not differ significantly from females (3.007 ± 0.261 kg) (t-test, t = 0.38, df = 22). The weight of the penguins did not correlate with the fish intake (R 2 = 0.0133 for males and R 2 = 0.0358 for females).