no, they don't have weddings, they're penguins..

a. Courtship varies among the species. It generally begins with both visual and auditory displays. In many species, males display first to establish a nest site and then to attract a mate.

b. Most penguin species are monogamous (one male breeds with one female during a mating season) (del Hoyo, et al., 1992); however, research has shown that some females may have one to three partners in one season and some males may have one or two partners (Davis and Speirs, 1990).

c. Mate selection is up to the female, and it is the females that compete for the males (Davis and Speirs, 1990).

d. A female usually selects the same male from the preceding season (Sparks and Soper, 1987). Ad?lie penguins have been documented re-pairing with the previous year's mate 62% of the time. Chinstraps re-paired in 82% of possible cases, and gentoos re-paired 90% of the time (Trivelpiece, 1990). In one study of Ad?lies, females paired with males within minutes of arriving at the colony (Davis and Speirs, 1990).

e. When a female selects a different mate it is usually because her mate from the previous season fails to return to the nesting area. Another reason may be mistiming in returning to the nesting area. If they arrive at different times and miss each other, one or the other penguin may obtain a new mate (Davis and Speirs, 1990).

Posted By: malkybarkid on January 25th 2006 at 13:34:48

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