How do king penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus) apply the mathematical theory of information to communicate in windy conditions?

In the king penguin (Atenodytes patagonicus), both pair members alternate i n incubating and rearing their chick. Mates can recognize each other among thousands of other birds in the hubbub of the colony using only acoustic si gnalling-the display call. Large penguin colonies are found on sub-Antarcti c islands where strong winds blow throughout the year. We have shown by exp eriments under natural conditions that the level of background noise increa ses in windy conditions and thus leads to a diminution of the signal-to-noi se ratio. Moreover the emergence level of the signal revealed by entropy ca lculation is statistically weaker in windy conditions. To achieve breeding success, birds must continue communicating in spite of the significant decr ease in the total amount of information that can be transmitted in windy si tuations. For the first time, to our knowledge, eve have shown that a bird species takes into account the constraints imposed by wind on their acousti c communication. In windy conditions, birds try to maintain the efficiency of communication by increasing both the number of calls emitted and the num ber of syllables per call. This result conforms with predictions from the m athematical theory of communication: increased redundancy in a signal impro ves the probability of receiving a message in a noisy channel.