Adélie penguins form large colonies during the breeding season in Antarctica. These seabirds regularly make trips from their colony to the ocean to find food for their chicks. The distance can range from several to dozens of kilometers. Scientists have long wondered how penguins choose their foraging sites. Some researchers believe that penguins may learn from other penguins in their colony about where to find the best food. This type of learned information from others is called social information.
A new study examined which information sources Adélie penguins actually use when selecting where to forage. Researchers at Torinosu Cove tracked about one-third of the penguins in a colony using GPS devices. They recorded over 650 foraging trips during the chick-rearing period. The results showed that penguins frequently returned to sites they had successfully used before. This suggests that personal experience plays a significant role in their foraging decisions, though social information from colony members may also contribute.