The Proper Penguins

The Dr. Kinsey of the penguin world is a New Zealand ornithologist named Lancelot Eric Richdale. For ten breeding seasons he watched colonies of yellow-eyed penguins (Megadyptes antipodes) on the coast of New Zealand's South Island. He made friends with the birds, attached identifying bands to their legs, and spied with a telescope upon their domestic affairs. In a new book, Sexual Behavior in Penguins (University of Kansas Press; $5), he tells what he learned about their lives and loves, "marriages" and "divorces."

Penguins, he found, are as proper as they look, and they are reasonably faithful mates. Most of their "marriages" last for more than one season. The main threat to family stability is the normal surplus of "unemployed males." Every female penguin gets plenty of propositions. She usually chills the encroacher with a fixed, glassy stare, but sometimes she first tolerates, then welcomes his attentions. It takes a long time to break up a penguin home, for a new pair can be formed only after a long period of ceremonial adjustment.

Throbs & Ecstasy. Penguins are naturally sociable, and they have many gestures to express their amiability. Some gestures are as casual as hat tipping or perfunctory smiles among humans. Others lead to serious "pair formation." When a male and female are getting better acquainted, they go through a series of intricate ceremonials, each of which has its place in the growth of their relationship. First they bow formally, with outstretched flippers. Later, when they feel more intimate, they shake their heads, make a vibrating sound, or stretch out their necks and squawk. As their fondness ripens, the lovers preen one another or kiss by rubbing their necks together.

Their peak of emotion is what Richdale calls "the ecstatic." They stand close together, flapping their flippers wildly, twining their necks and "trumpeting" loudly, while juvenile penguins gather around to watch the ceremony. Among mammals or less seemly birds, such behavior might lead forthwith to sexual intercourse. But not among the penguins. After the extensive ceremonies of courtship, both birds sink down exhausted, as if the demands of the preliminaries had drained their strength.

Pair in Tune. This habit of the penguins has long puzzled ornithologists. Richdale's theory is that the ceremonials, which continue throughout the breeding season, are not sexual preliminaries. Their purpose, he thinks, is simply to "attune" the pair. Then, when the female's unborn eggs are just right for fertilization, mating takes place instantly at her signal.

But Ornithologist Richdale admits that his theory is still just a theory. During all his ten seasons of careful observation, he never once saw the discreet penguins actually mating.

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