Penguins harmed by banding

For years, flipper banding has been used to tag and monitor penguin populations, but findings say that of a 10-year study could be the death of the practice. French and Norwegian researchers who studied 50 banded and 50 non-banded free-roaming king penguins on Antarctica's Possession Island say the practice impairs reproduction and reduces life-expectancy. Some previous studies concluded the metal bands had no long-term ill effects on the birds. The new study, published Thursday in the journal Nature, disputes the earlier assumption that penguins adapted to bands within a year. The researchers, led by Claire Saraux of France's University de Strasbourg, say that over the course of the study, flipper-banded penguins produced 39 per cent fewer chicks and had a 16 per cent lower survival rate. During the 10-year study, 80 per cent of the banded birds died, while only 64 per cent of the unbranded birds died, demonstrating a dramatically reduced life expectancy for those with bands.