Adelie penguins travel in groups. Photo: Courtesy of Graduate University for Advanced Studies
The team, led by Japan's Graduate University for Advanced Studies, or Sokendai, published the findings in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, an international bioscience journal, on Wednesday.
The team observed a colony of Adelie penguins in Lutzow-Holm Bay near Japan's Showa Station research base in Antarctica. It analyzed data from 116 penguins fitted with activity recorders.
The team discovered that while many penguins repeatedly visited the same feeding grounds, they had a tendency to reach new foraging grounds by following their fellow colony members if they failed to find food.
The team believes that the penguins had developed a strategy of returning to successful foraging grounds and seeking new areas if their foraging trips were unsuccessful. The team suggested that this behavior contributed to an increase in overall food acquisition.
"We were able to demonstrate the advantages of animals living in groups based on behavioral data collected in the field," Akinori Takahashi, a professor at the university and an expert in animal ecology, said.
"The findings represent a significant achievement that will help us understand why social life evolved among animals and the impact of population decline," he added.
