Do any animals (such as skuas) act aggressively toward penguins when the penguins are guarding their nests?
Adult penguins in their colonies are pretty safe from predators such as skuas and petrels. However chicks are at risk. Chicks at the edges of colonies, where there is less adult protection, are in the greatest danger. I saw a few chicks attacked by skuas on Torgersen Island. The skuas often work in pairs, one to distract adults and the other to attack the chicks. In one instance I saw a chick that struggled intensely against a fierce skua attack for several minutes. (I didn’t observe the attack until after it started so I don’t know if the bird was in its nest or had wandered away from the colony when it was first struck). Eventually the chick escaped back into its colony. In the next several days we will be posting some video of a skua attacking an Adelie chick. It is difficult to watch such material. But as researcher Donna Patterson explains, it is completely normal for predators to eat prey. Adelie penguins kill animals too. They eat krill. By the way, adult penguins are at risk of
