Seminar Two
Evolution of sexuality
Mating and reproductive strategies
The master birder of the oceans, Peter Harrison, once told me that if he had a week to live, he would spend five days on South Georgia and two days getting there. I photographed the nearly fledged Wandering Albatross (shown below) on the island of South Georgia in the South Atlantic, a magical place which you must visit even if it's the last thing you do.
The mating strategy of the Wandering Albatross is strict monogamy, with partner fidelity for life. After male and female first mate, they rear a chick and return to their home, the howling winds of the Southern Ocean. They return to the same landfall at the same time two years later and mate again, and repeat this ritual for decades.
Wandering Albatrosses live long monogamous lives (to sixty years) if one of them doesn't get killed by long-line fishing nets. It is more often the female who meets this unfortunate fate, as she flies above more northerly waters than the male, and it is there that long-line nets are placed.
We were among the few people in the world lucky to see Emperor Penguin chicks on the feet of a parent. No other animal gives birth to its young in the midst of the Antarctic winter. We could call this bird a true extremophile.
What is the Emperor Penguin's mating strategy? Partner fidelity for one season only. Perhaps the reason for this is that finding a partner in the tempestuous cold of the Antarctic autumn is too difficult for being choosy. A low-temperature extremophile is called a cryophile. Are some birds thermophiles?
