Penguins Okay With Human Visitors- For Now, Innovations-report Bookmark and Share

Excerpts: A study (...) examines the effects of humans on Magellanic Penguins and finds no immediate, negative effects of tourism. Although first seeing people is stressful for the penguins, habituation is rapid. The authors monitored the defensive head turns and the level of a hormone secreted in response to stress (plasma corticosterone) of penguins when encountering humans. "Head turns of penguins visited for 10 days were significantly lower than those of penguins visited for 5 days and were not significantly different than for penguins living in the [much frequented] tourist area," the authors explain. (...)