Secret language of penguins decoded

African penguins have a song for every occasion, suggests a new study which found the seabirds make six distinct sounds when hungry, happy or looking for a mate.
Adult African penguins communicate using four different vocalisations and juveniles and chicks use two begging calls to request food, according to the study by Livio Favaro and colleagues from University of Turin, Italy.
These penguins vocalise to communicate with their parents, mates, and colony members; however, only basic descriptions of their calls currently exist.
To further observe their vocal behaviour, the authors of the study collected, categorised, and acoustically analysed hundreds of audio and video vocal recordings from a large captive colony of penguins in Italy.

In addition, they identified the behavioural contexts in which calls were made.
Results show that four basic vocalisations can be found in the auditory repertoire of the adult African penguin: a contact call emitted by isolated birds, an agonistic call used in aggressive interactions, an ecstatic display song uttered by single birds during the breeding season, and a mutual display song vocalised by pairs at their nests.

The authors also identified two distinct vocalisations interpreted as begging calls by nesting chicks (begging peep) and unweaned juveniles (begging moan).
Since the colony is captive, the authors can't be sure they've identified all possible vocalisations, but they suggest this analysis helps to standardise known vocalisations that can be used in further study of these endangered seabirds.

The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE.