From Mating Call to Mating Pair

Males go through great lengths to impress their soon-to-be mate: a look at the courtship ritual and how females choose a partner.

Attracting a Mate

To attract a mate, males will undergo a series of behavioral rituals to entice an unpaired female (Rey, 2012). Males perform mating calls which are similar to that of donkeys—described as “braying” (Rey, 2012).

Once loud vocalizations grab the attention of a female, he will encircle her and rapidly pat her utilizing his flippers (de Mendonça Santos, 2019). After the drumming, the two may be paired for seasonal breeding (de Mendonça Santos, 2019). Annual copulation initiates in the late spring months in South America—September (de Mendonça Santos, 2019).

Rearing

Chicks are also born in spring months and develop quickly as autumn sets in—during January and February (Rey, 2012). A clutch of two eggs is yielded per breeding season, but the survival rate of the second hatchling is rarely above 50% (Stokes, 2014).

Depending on survival likelihood, the parents will feed the more sizable chick (Stokes, 2014). Unique of bird nesting behaviors, the male Magellanic penguin excavates dirt employing his clawed feet and flippers to establish a proper nesting site (Stokes, 2014).

The nesting site is known as a “burrow,” and commonly may be hidden by foliage and surrounding brush to fortify the potential offspring from predators (Stokes, 2014).

Finding and Keeping a Mate

Obtaining a mate is accomplished through a series of mating displays (de Mendonça Santos, 2019).

Intraspecific competition commences among the males in order to acquire a female mate (de Mendonça Santos, 2019). Females often respond more positively to the larger male for better nest protection (Clements, 2015); however, her choice is also dependent on whether she already experienced parturition (de Mendonça Santos, 2019).

Post egg laying, a female may not always choose the larger male—she will choose the biological parent to her offspring (Clements, 2015). Using their sense of smell and vocalizations, penguins are able to distinguish their mate from unknown individuals (de Mendonça Santos, 2019).

Though known for their loyalty—if the paternal performance is unsatisfactory, the female will thereafter search for a new mate as breeding season ends (de Mendonça Santos, 2019).