African penguin sounds on this page are a contact call, two display songs, an agonistic call and a chick’s begging peep. Five recordings from research on African penguins, each with a spectrogram and a note on what the researchers say the call does.
Penguin sounds and what they mean
Contact call
a contact call produced by single members of the colony when visually isolated from the rest of the group or from the partner
Recording by Favaro L, Gamba M, Alfieri C, Pessani D, McElligott A, licensed CC BY 4.0 (original file)
Ecstatic display song (audio taken from a research video)
We hypothesise that it served both to attract mates and as advertisement display of nest occupancy.
Recording by Favaro L, Gamba M, Alfieri C, Pessani D, McElligott A, licensed CC BY 4.0 (original file)
Agonistic call (audio taken from a research video)
an agonistic call uttered during fights or when intruding penguins approached a nest already occupied by a pair
Recording by Favaro L, Ozella L, Pessani D, licensed CC BY (original file)
Mutual display song (audio taken from a research video)
Partners often emitted this call simultaneously, overlapping in a duet.
Recording by Favaro L, Ozella L, Pessani D, licensed CC BY (original file)
Begging peep (audio taken from a research video)
a begging peep emitted by chicks (<3 months of age) inside the nest, which probably has the function of stimulating food regurgitation by the parent
Recording by Favaro L, Ozella L, Pessani D, licensed CC BY (original file)
Calls for partners, rivals and chicks
Favaro et al. (2014, PLOS ONE) describe what each call is for. The contact call is produced by single members of the colony when visually isolated from the rest of the group or from the partner. The ecstatic display song is thought to attract mates and advertise nest occupancy: the authors write “we hypothesise that it served both to attract mates and as advertisement display of nest occupancy”.
The mutual display song is a duet, since “partners often emitted this call simultaneously, overlapping in a duet”. The agonistic call is heard during fights or when intruding penguins approach an occupied nest. The begging peep belongs to chicks under 3 months of age inside the nest, and probably stimulates food regurgitation by the parent.
Where these recordings come from
The contact call and the ecstatic display song were recorded by Favaro, Gamba, Alfieri, Pessani and McElligott (CC BY 4.0). The agonistic call, the mutual display song and the begging peep were recorded by Favaro, Ozella and Pessani (CC BY). Four of the clips are labelled “Audio taken from a research video”. Each card links the original file and its licence.