Pygoscelis penguins are valuable indicators of the effects of rapid warming in the Antarctic Peninsula. In the western Antarctic Peninsula, Adélie penguins show a declining population trend, whereas gentoo penguins are expanding. The notably low reproductive success of Adélie but not gentoo penguins at Ardley Island during the 2023/2024 breeding season provided an opportunity to explore the potential effects of weather conditions and food availability as possible determinants of reproductive output. We explore associations between reproductive output, air temperature, wind speed, wind chill temperature and accumulated rain and snow. As a proxy for food availability, we used data of penguins’ foraging trips, which reflect krill abundance. A late-winter storm at the end of October 2023 led to a record-low wind chill temperature and sustained snow cover, negatively affecting the number of eggs that hatched successfully and/or the number of chicks that survived the first days after hatching. The effects were similar for both species, yet for gentoo penguins chick survival in the late stage of the chick-rearing phase was remarkably higher, possibly due to high food availability and a longer nestling period. As previously suggested, the greater plasticity of gentoo penguins may allow them to mitigate the negative effects of environmental variability, potentially explaining this divergent breeding success despite unusually harsh meteorological conditions.

Adélie penguins are renowned for their natal philopatry on land-based colonies, requiring small pebbles to be used for nests. We report on an opportunistic observation via aerial survey, where hundreds of Adélie penguins were documented displaying nesting behaviours on fast ice ~3 km off the coast of Cape Crozier, which is one of the largest colonies in the world. We counted 426 Adélie penguins engaging in behaviours of pair formation, spacing similarly to normal nest distributions and lying in divots in the ice that looked like nests. On our first visit, it was noticed that the guano stain was bright pink, consistent with krill consumption, but had shifted to green over the course of ~2 weeks, indicating that the birds were fasting (a behaviour consistent with egg incubation). However, eggs were not observed. We posit four hypotheses that may explain the proximate causes of this behaviour and caution against future high-resolution satellite imagery interpretation due to the potential for confusing ice-nesting Adélie penguins with the presence of emperor penguin colonies.

The Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) breeding population at Stranger Point, King George Island (25 de Mayo), increased in number from 1965/66 until 1980/81 after which it started to decrease almost continuously up to the present. A significant decrease in the number of breeding pairs and chicks crèched was observed between 1995/96 and 2013/14 (75% and 78%, respectively), although the rate of this decrease has slowed since 2006/07. Over the last seven years, larger interannual fluctuations were recorded in the number of breeding pairs and chicks in crèches, as well in the breeding success. The values for the index of breeding success during 2007/08, 2009/10 and 2012/13 were low and this parameter showed higher temporal fluctuation in the period 2007/08 to 2013/14. The reduction in breeding success and the number of chicks reared to crèche will unfavourably impact on future population size at Stranger Point through the reduction of new recruits. Although Adélie penguin population trends on the Antarctic Peninsula are linked to the marine environment variability (i.e. reduction in sea ice affecting the availability of prey), breeding success is also influenced by the amount of snow fall which has increased in recent years.

We carried out a study to investigate the presence of some protozoan parasites (Cryptosporidium sp., Giardia sp., Toxoplasma gondii) on three species of Antarctic penguins: Adélie (Pygoscelis adeliae), gentoo (Pygoscelis papua) and chinstrap (Pygoscelis antarctica) from different locations along the Antarctic Peninsula and the South Shetland Islands. Swabs and faeces samples were analysed by PCR assay for Cryptosporidium sp. and Giardia sp. while Toxoplasma was studied using serological methods from blood samples. We did not detect the presence of these organisms in the species studied. However, based on the upper values of the confidence intervals of the observed prevalence, their presence cannot be completely excluded.

In a study designed to elucidate the factors that might differentially affect the well being and biology of Adélie penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae) that breed in colonies of different size, we investigated the predation rates on penguins by leopard seals (Hydrurga leptonyx) over a period of six years. The study colonies varied in size across the full range for this penguin species, contrasting with previous studies in which data were gathered only at very large colonies, and only in single years. The number of seals present varied directly with the amount of penguin traffic in the areas near the beach, where most predation takes place. Seals were present persistently only when penguin traffic exceeded about 250 penguins per hour. Predation rates also varied with penguin traffic in a curvilinear fashion, leveling off where traffic exceeded about 1200 penguins per hour. With respect to predation, it appears to be advantageous for Adélie penguins to nest in very small or very large colonies. At large colonies, the number of penguins moving to and from the colony ‘swamp’ the seals' predatory efforts, thus reducing the chances that an individual penguin will be taken. Small colonies are of little interest to the seals.

We investigated 17 abandoned Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) colonies in the Windmill Islands, East Antarctica, in summer 2002/03. Forty radiocarbon dates on penguin bones and eggshells from 13 of these sites indicate a near continuous occupation by breeding penguins in this region for over 9000 years. These dates refine the recent geological record in this region and indicate that deglaciation of the northern islands occurred much earlier than previously suggested. Dietary remains from these sites include at least 23 taxa of cephalopods and teleost fish. Quantification of these remains indicates significant fluctuations in the relative abundance of two of the more common major prey taxa. The Antarctic silverfish (Pleuragramma antarcticum Boulenger) was the most common teleost prey during all time periods represented by the ages of the sites, but preservational factors may explain a gradual decrease in the remains of this species in increasingly older sites. The most common cephalopod in the sediments was the squid, Psychroteuthis glacialis Thiele, which occurred in low numbers in most sites except one (Site 75). An unusually high number of squid beaks preserved in Site 75, dating to approximately 5700–6100 cal. yr BP, does not correlate with a decrease in fish prey at that time. The high number of abandoned penguin colonies (> 200) in the Windmill Islands may be due to population cycles in the past in association with low nest-site fidelity and movement by breeding penguins to new sites within this region.

Adélie penguins Pygoscelis adeliae were tested as to whether they jump with optimal energy efficiency when moving out of the sea to the land. Adélie penguins risk predation if the jump fails. Swimming penguins usually launch up the side of sea ice to a surface higher than sea level. Analysis of jumping behaviour recorded by a video camera showed that the trajectory of the centre of gravity of the birds during the aerial phase of jumping was parabolic, indicating that the success of landing depends on three parameters at the time of take-off from water: speed, angle and distance from the point of emergence to the ice edge. There was a negative relationship between distance and the take-off angle, suggesting that penguins adjust their take-off angle to the distance from the ice edge. The comparison among hypotheses revealed that penguins did not jump with optimal energy efficiency. Instead, they aimed for the refracted image of the edge of the cliff, which from underwater appears higher than it actually is. This direction-dependent rule seems to be more robust and reliable than the optimal energetic strategy.

Non-krill prey remains were recovered from ornithogenic sediments at three active Adélie penguin colonies on Ross Island, to assess long-term dietary trends in this species. Radiocarbon dates place the age of these deposits from a maximum of 947 years ago to the present. We identified 12 taxa of fish and two of squid with the Antarctic silverfish (Pleuragramma antarcticum) as the most abundant prey species represented at all sites. In addition, silverfish have decreased in importance in Adélie penguin diet over the past 600 years, perhaps in response to climate change since the onset of the Little Ice Age, though it remains much more abundant in current penguin diet in the Ross Sea than in the Antarctic Peninsula. Other prey taxa reflect the diversity of prey selection by Adélie penguins in Antarctica.