# Penguins exploit tidal currents for efficient navigation and opportunistic foraging

## TL;DR

Magellanic penguins use tidal currents to create S-shaped paths back to their colony, saving energy and improving foraging.

## Contribution

The study reveals how penguins adaptively use tidal currents to balance navigation accuracy and foraging efficiency.

## Key findings

- Penguins adjust their return paths based on tidal currents, increasing travel distance but reducing energy costs.
- S-shaped return paths allow penguins to maintain directional accuracy while capitalizing on foraging opportunities.
- Penguins can sense and respond to current drift, optimizing their navigation in complex oceanic flows.

## Abstract

Animals navigating in fluid environments often face forces from wind or water currents that challenge travel efficiency and route accuracy. We investigated how 27 Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) adapt their navigation strategies to return to their colony amid regional tidal ocean currents. Using GPS-enhanced dead-reckoning loggers and high-resolution ocean current data, we reconstructed penguin travel vectors during foraging trips to assess their responses to variable currents during their colony-bound movements. By integrating estimates of energy costs and prey pursuits, we found that birds balanced direct navigation with current-driven drift: in calm currents, they maintained precise line-of-sight headings to their colony. In stronger currents, they aligned their return with lateral flows, which increased travel distance, but at reduced energy costs, and provided them with increased foraging opportunities. Since the lateral tidal currents always reversed direction over the course of return paths, the penguins’ return paths were consistently S-shaped but still resulted in the birds returning efficiently to their colonies. These findings suggest that Magellanic penguins can sense current drift and use it to enhance energy efficiency by maintaining overall directional accuracy while capitalizing on foraging opportunities.

How are magellanic penguins able to navigate tidal currents while balancing energy efficiency and foraging opportunities? This study reveals how they adaptively make S-shaped return paths to their colony, optimizing travel in complex oceanic flows.