In the context of global warming, heat waves are becoming a major concern for a large number of endorthermic species, and can negatively impact both reproductive success and short-term survival. Heat waves are however mainly modeled with the use of air temperature, which does not acurately represent the thermal pressure, especially in natural conditions. The occurrence of heat stress is thus not framed by extreme temperatures only, even more so when considering species’ ecology and specific sensitivity to heat. King penguins are cold-adapted subpolar birds, which are bound to a small territory during reproduction on land, to incubate and protect their egg or chick without being able to access water for weeks. These constraints specific to breeding adults make the king penguin a good model to study heat stress on the physiology, behavior and reproduction of polar birds. Using a long-term dataset from a penguin colony in Crozet archipelago, we described the use of 3 thermoregulatory behaviors (panting, wing stretching, exposure of the brooding pouch), in relation to climatic (temperature, solar radiation, wind, humidity) and biological (sex, breeding stage, fasting duration) parameters. In addition, we explored the effect of heat stress on other non-thermoregulatory behaviors, such as aggressiveness towards conspecifics, which could exacerbate the deleterious effects of heat stress. The next steps of the study will focus on linking behavioral responses to physiological consequences in terms of thermal balance, stress markers and reproduction.
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