Penguins maintain effort, despite reduced dive efficiency, with limited physiological response under increased swimming workload
Abstract
In highly variable marine habitat, it is key to understand how free-ranging animals cope with variation in the energy cost of locomotion. Here, we experimentally tested how an apex marine predator, the king penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus) adjusted to an increase cost of locomotion when foraging at sea. We investigated the consequences of increased hydrodynamic drag on diving performance and physiology of a group of birds subject to externally-attached devices compared to control individuals. King penguins did not increase their locomotor effort to compensate for the additional drag but decreased swimming speed while maintaining dynamic body acceleration (VeDBA, a proxy of energy expenditure) constant. Treated birds showed no evidence of increased physiological stress in terms of body condition, oxidative stress, heterophil/lymphocyte ratio and glucocorticoid hormone levels, suggesting locomotory behavior was adjusted to minimize the costs of locomotion resulting from increased drag. Moderate consequences on mitochondrial aerobic metabolism suggest that treated birds may have had to adjust cellular metabolism. Our experimental study provides novel insight into the energetic and physiological constraints of locomotion in diving animals operating near their performance limits.
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BibTeX
@article{lemonnier2026penguins,
title = {{Penguins maintain effort, despite reduced dive efficiency, with limited physiological response under increased swimming workload}},
author = {Camille Lemonnier and Antoine Stier and Anne Cillard and Marine Montblanc and Fabrice Bertile and Pierre Bize and Jean-Patrice Robin and Vincent A Viblanc and Charles-André Bost and Yves Handrich},
journal = {Journal of Experimental Biology},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1242/jeb.252912},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05798560v1},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Penguins maintain effort, despite reduced dive efficiency, with limited physiological response under increased swimming workload
AU - Camille Lemonnier
AU - Antoine Stier
AU - Anne Cillard
AU - Marine Montblanc
AU - Fabrice Bertile
AU - Pierre Bize
AU - Jean-Patrice Robin
AU - Vincent A Viblanc
AU - Charles-André Bost
AU - Yves Handrich
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/02
JO - Journal of Experimental Biology
DO - 10.1242/jeb.252912
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05798560v1
AB - In highly variable marine habitat, it is key to understand how free-ranging animals cope with variation in the energy cost of locomotion. Here, we experimentally tested how an apex marine predator, the king penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus) adjusted to an increase cost of locomotion when foraging at sea. We investigated the consequences of increased hydrodynamic drag on diving performance and physiology of a group of birds subject to externally-attached devices compared to control individuals. King penguins did not increase their locomotor effort to compensate for the additional drag but decreased swimming speed while maintaining dynamic body acceleration (VeDBA, a proxy of energy expenditure) constant. Treated birds showed no evidence of increased physiological stress in terms of body condition, oxidative stress, heterophil/lymphocyte ratio and glucocorticoid hormone levels, suggesting locomotory behavior was adjusted to minimize the costs of locomotion resulting from increased drag. Moderate consequences on mitochondrial aerobic metabolism suggest that treated birds may have had to adjust cellular metabolism. Our experimental study provides novel insight into the energetic and physiological constraints of locomotion in diving animals operating near their performance limits.
SN - 0022-0949
SN - 1477-9145
ER -