QUESTION:
How do you tell the difference between a male and female penguin?

                 Mr. Holz's class
                 Newington Forest ES
                 Springfield, Virginia


ANSWER from Lori Ross, Research Assistant, Carol Vleck's Team
            Palmer Station, Antarctica
            Wed, 12 Feb 1997 12:23:33 -0500

Dear Mr. Holz and students,

Unfortunately, you cannot tell a male from a female Adelie penguin by 
just looking at it.  We have to put a number of behavioural clues 
together in order to find this out.  First of all, when we band a 
bird, we measure the beak, the head, and the flipper.  This may tell 
us the sex of the bird as males tend to be larger than females.  
Secondly, we will observe the banded birds throughout the breeding 
season.  We will obtain information based on who arrives first 
at the colonies (usually the males) and their subsequent copulation 
behaviour.  A lot of our birds are sexed based on who takes the first 
incubation shift.  In most circumstances, the male will take the 
first long incubation shift.  Therefore, at the end of the season, we 
can put all of these clues together and hopefully be able to 
determine the sex of the penguins that we followed.  

Thanks for your question!

Lori Ross