THE ANTARCTIC SKUA – A PENGUIN’S WORST ENEMY
Some might say that the penguin’s worst enemy is the Leopard Seal since it is their major predator and seems to like catching penguins and slapping them back and forth on the surface of the ocean till their skin is removed, before eating them.
But the Antarctic Skua or South Polar Skua has to be up there in terms of the damage they do to penguin eggs and young chicks. In the 1950’s it was thought that Skuas relied on penguins for their survival but in the 1959-60 season, a young zoologist, Euan Young, discovered that they relied more on fishing at sea than preying on penguins.
This bird is an excellent flyer and wide ranging. Although they congregate and breed on the coast of Antarctica in snow free areas they have been seen hundreds of miles inland and as far as the South Pole.
One wonders why, when there is nothing to eat there, unless they are getting handouts or food scraps from Amundsen Scott Base at the South Pole. Although I think they may have found it’s a shortcut to the far coast.
They have a pretty bad reputation amongst humans mainly because of their aggressive and predatory nature. Although they often eat fish and krill it is not uncommon for them to have their breeding grounds right next to penguin colonies where they can feed on any unattended eggs or chicks. They will also attack other birds carrying food and take it from them.
This ‘bad’ behaviour seems to start in childhood. Normally two eggs are laid but only one survives due to ‘siblicide’ where the older of the two chicks either kills the younger one or drives it from the nest, where it dies or is eaten by other predators.
When I was a child I used to have great fun in the creek near our house that was the home of some breeding plovers. Whenever we crossed a particular section of a field they would attack us and it was quite exciting dodging their attacks.
Usually they would swoop and veer away at the last moment and sometimes actually hit us. The Antarctic Skuas are the same. Both bird species are protecting their eggs or chicks because the nests are in the open on flat ground, so if you are attacked you know you are too close.
Although they have a bad rep, I guess they are just trying to survive, and perhaps they serve an evolutionary purpose by removing the eggs and chicks of inattentive parents, thereby in some way, strengthening the penguin colony. That’s if bad parenting can be passed on, I’m not sure 🙂
You know they are great flyers when you realise that in the Antarctic winter they migrate as far as Alaska and Greenland. Currently, they are not considered a threatened species. You can see them in action below: