25 January,2025 08:08 AM IST | Los Angeles | Agencies
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The common misconception that penguins mate forever has been shredded by a new study that has found that little penguins, scientifically called Eudyptula minor, "divorce" their partners to search for better mates. Published in the journal Ecology and Evolution, this new study found that high divorce rates are a good indicator of the colony's overall health.
This species of penguins often return to the same mate every breeding season, but some ditch their partners to seek new mates, which scientists call a "penguin divorce". Researchers looked at how environmental and social factors, including divorce, influenced reproductive success over 13 breeding seasons on Phillip Island in Australia, which is home to 37,000 little penguins - the world's largest colony of the species.
Divorce (or lack thereof) was the best predictor of reproductive success, with more offspring produced during seasons with low divorce rates, according to the study.
Researchers believe penguins divorce for various reasons, including reproductive failure and environmental stress, which can all make penguin pairs less stable. In the long-term, separation can enhance reproductive success by allowing the penguins to find more compatible or "higher quality" mates, the study authors wrote.
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