News Humans

Marking penguins for study may do harm

Bands used to tell birds apart affect reproduction and survival

By Susan Milius

- More than 2 years ago

A 10-year monitoring project has found that the metal identification bands that researchers attach to penguin flippers can cause long-term harm to the birds and possibly to research results too.

WHERE’S WALDO A stainless steel metal band fitted around the upper part of a flipper (on penguin near center) carries an identifying code that lets scientists tell birds apart, but a long-term study finds that the bands also appear to reduce penguin survival and success at raising families.