Relocate a penguin?

Question

Say I relocated a penguin from Antarctica (the southern pole) to the Artic (the northern pole, where there are no penguins.) Would the penguin even know the difference? Could it adapt and thrive in the north then?

Answer 1

Long-term, I doubt it. Possibly short term, but the seasons are reversed (might not seem to be an issue, since it is always so cold, but the rise and set of the sun would differ, and the full darkness of winter would be reversed.) This type of change would throw the biorhythm of the bird out of whack. Also, there may not be the proper food sources available and they may not be able to adapt to that. And of course, as a single penguin, there is no hope for procreation!!

Answer 2

No. The biggest reason for this weighs about a ton, has a very accute sense of smell and is white.

If you moved a colony of slow moving (on land at any rate) penguins to the north pole, then all you would prove is that Polar Bears are probably partial to penguins!

Antartica has no terrestrial predators which is why nothing eats the flocks of Emperor Penguins! The Arctic on the other hand has a variety of predators such as wolverines, arctic fox and polar bears as well as an equal number of aquatic predators such as Orca and a variety of Seals. All of these are animals that would try to take a penguin.

Also the niche has been filled in the northern hemisphere by other birds such as Auks and Puffins.

If you killed the predators though, and climate change is doing just that, then yes, they could survive. The proof for this is that there used to be a flightless bird in the arctic. Called the Great Auk, it was very penguin-like, but was hunted to extinction about 400 years ago.

EDIT....


As Tentofield has said (below) it is true that northern species of penguins do have predators, however, I doubt that these would survive an Arctic winter. Also the question does state could they survive a transplant from Antartica to the Arctic rather than a transplant from South Africa to the Arctic!

He is correct that there are avian predators as well as getting killed by leopard seals (amongst other species), but these do not impact on the level of recruitment in the same was as being predated by Polar Bear/Arctic Fox in addition to the other predators.

Answer 3

Most penguins do not live in Antarctica but further north. Of the seventeen species of penguin, only two, the Adelie and the Emperor breed only on the edge of Antarctica. The others breed on the coasts of Australia, South Africa, Argentina and Chile, New Zealand, most of the islands south of about 40°S and as far north as the Galapagos islands on the equator.

There have been many successful transfers of penguins from the southern to the northern hemisphere which is why you can see penguins in zoos throughout Europe, Asia and North America. It takes a few years for the penguins to adapt to the reversal of seasons and their annual moult is patchy for a while. The colours of the feathers get a bit confused as well and the birds look blotchy until things settle down.

Penguins are good navigators and know where they are going. They return to where they were born to breed. If you wanted to establish a colony of free-swimming penguins in the northern hemisphere you would need to hatch them and rear them on the beach you wanted to use. Those that hatch there will stay there. If they hatched in the southern hemisphere, they would try to return there.

"Antartica has no terrestrial predators which is why nothing eats the flocks of Emperor Penguins!"

Except skuas and sheathbills which will take penguin eggs and chicks if they can and there are plenty of leopard seals in the seas around Antarctica which eat penguins. For the penguins that live in South Africa, South America and Australia there are plenty of terrestrial predators. New Zealand didn't have any but cats, rats and stoats have been introduced.