Who’s Eating Jellyfish? Penguins, That’s Who
An Adélie penguin swims near the jellyfish Diplulmaris Antarctica in Antarctic waters. Several species of penguins were recently discovered to eat carnivorous jellyfish. There are not many jellyvores in the world, or so scientists have long thought. Gelatinous sea animals, like jellyfish and ctenophores, have traditionally been regarded as “dead ends” in food webs. Because they are so low in calories (jellyfish are about 95 percent water), it was thought that most predators would not benefit from eating them. But a recent study has identified a new, unexpected jelly-eater: penguins. Like other warm-blooded animals, penguins have high caloric demands and typically seek energy-dense foods, like fish and krill. In a paper published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, however, an international consortium of scientists has reported that an assortment of penguin species frequently attack jellies as food, a behavior that had not been documented before. Past studies ha
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