Antipodes’ Penguins Lay Eggs Doomed to Die

In 1998, a team of researchers made the three-and-a-half day trek to the isolated Antipodes Islands in the South Pacific to study one of its few residents: the enigmatic and endangered erect-crested penguin. “These are really the forgotten penguins,” said Lloyd Davis, a biologist and science communicator at the University of Otago, who led the team almost 25 years ago.

“No one knows virtually anything about them,” Davis says.

Darren Incornaia reports on why some penguins give up on their unhatched eggs for The New York Times.

The modern plight of these birds inspired Davis, after decades of working in science communication, to revisit the data he and colleagues gathered in 1998. The results of their research were recently published in the journal PLOS ONE, chronicling the birds’ demographics and unique parenting style – including neglecting, and in some cases killing, potential chicks.

Original article by Darren Incorvaia, The New York Times, October 12, 2022.

Photo by Tui De Roy.