一项最新研究显示，在企鹅翅膀上套钢圈来进行标识的传统手段会影响企鹅生存，由此得出的科研结论可能也存在问题。

新一期英国《自然》杂志刊登报告说，法国斯特拉斯堡大学等机构研究人员对南极附近海洋中一个小岛上的企鹅进行了为期10年的跟踪研究。结果显示，翅膀上套了钢圈的企鹅与没套钢圈的企鹅相比，10年后的存活率要低16%，繁衍出来的后代的数量要低39%。

研究人员认为，企鹅翅膀上套了钢圈后，在海中游泳时需要耗费更多体力，与其他企鹅相比觅食时需要的时间更长，这不仅影响了它们自身的存活率，还使得其后代获取的食物与其他小企鹅相比更少，其繁衍后代的能力也相应减弱。

领导研究的伊冯·勒·马霍说，人们应该考虑使用更先进的技术来标识企鹅，如在本次研究中，他们使用了皮下植入的芯片来标识用于对比研究的企鹅。

据介绍，通过在翅膀上套钢圈来标识企鹅是科学界的传统做法，已有超过30年的历史。过去曾有研究认为这可能会影响企鹅生存，但也有一些研究称翅膀上套个钢圈没有大的影响。本次研究持续10年，是这方面持续时间最长最深入的研究，其结果可能会导致今后企鹅研究中标识手段的大规模改变。

原文出处：

Nature  doi:10.1038/nature09630

Reliability of flipper-banded penguins as indicators of climate change

Claire Saraux,Céline Le Bohec,Jo?l M. Durant,Vincent A. Viblanc,Michel Gauthier-Clerc,David Beaune,Young-Hyang Park,Nigel G. Yoccoz,Nils C. Stenseth& Yvon Le Maho

In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change highlighted an urgent need to assess the responses of marine ecosystems to climate change1. Because they lie in a high-latitude region, the Southern Ocean ecosystems are expected to be strongly affected by global warming. Using top predators of this highly productive ocean2 (such as penguins) as integrative indicators may help us assess the impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems3, 4. Yet most available information on penguin population dynamics is based on the controversial use of flipper banding. Although some reports have found the effects of flipper bands to be deleterious5, 6, 7, 8, some short-term (one-year) studies have concluded otherwise9, 10, 11, resulting in the continuation of extensive banding schemes and the use of data sets thus collected to predict climate impact on natural populations12, 13. Here we show that banding of free-ranging king penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus) impairs both survival and reproduction, ultimately affecting population growth rate. Over the course of a 10-year longitudinal study, banded birds produced 39% fewer chicks and had a survival rate 16% lower than non-banded birds, demonstrating a massive long-term impact of banding and thus refuting the assumption that birds will ultimately adapt to being banded6, 12. Indeed, banded birds still arrived later for breeding at the study site and had longer foraging trips even after 10?years. One of our major findings is that responses of flipper-banded penguins to climate variability (that is, changes in sea surface temperature and in the Southern Oscillation index) differ from those of non-banded birds. We show that only long-term investigations may allow an evaluation of the impact of flipper bands and that every major life-history trait can be affected, calling into question the banding schemes still going on. In addition, our understanding of the effects of climate change on marine ecosystems based on flipper-band data should be reconsidered.