Penguins
I came to Antarctica to see the vast whiteness of the
continent and penquins As with everything written here, nothing is being
researched for accuracy—no internet service—and I’m repeating what various
naturalists, biologist, and many other –ologists tell us.
One of our first lectures on the boat was about penguins and
the speakers said, “people say, I’m not
a dog person, I’m not fond of cats, but no one has ever said, I don’t like
penguins”! Penguins are birds that
haven’t flown in the last 50-60 million years.
They are suspected to originate in New Zealand due to the quantity of
fossils and the variety of types of penguins.
On our trip we’re going to see 5 of the 17 species. We’ve already encountered the Magellanic
penguin who does not live in Antarctica, but further north in a more moderate
climate. These are the penguins that are
most commonly found in zoos. We will not
see “March of the Penguins” type penguins –they are Emperor penguins and don’t
live in the part of Antarctica we will be visiting. But we will be seeing several speciess featured in "Happy Feet".
Penguins have very human-like characteristics. They are the only bird that walks
upright. They are very social and in rookeries with thousands of other birds.
They fight among themselves. They
are monogamous and come back to the same partner yearly—this is after an 8
month absence in the sea. They are tough
and have adapted to a hard, rough and inhospitable environment. They are heavy
and their wings are very different from flying birds with a stiff wing that is
used more like a paddle than a wing. And
very unusual, they don’t swim, they fly in the water using their tails to steer
them sideways. They are able to “porpoise”
very fast in the water, but it takes lots of energy. Penguin spend 8 month of the year in water
and come out to breed and have their chicks.
Their waddle-like walk comes from having knees that are fused together.
They can only slide on their bellies in soft snow and can dive 50-200 meters.
Their diet consists mostly of krill—in fact the entire Antarctic food chain
starts with krill and it’s eaten by whales and seals also. They have big stomachs for birds and can take
in large amounts of food-very unusual for a bird. You will not see a penguin feeding it’s
babies krill, but a liquid mixture that they have already processed
somewhat. The baby's head appeared to go way up the parent's throat to get to this liquid food mixture. They appear ravenous when they are eating.
During this time of nesting, the baby penguins are not yet
waterproof and can’t be in the water until they moult—they lose their fuzzy
baby feathers and regular penguin feathers grow in. During this same period of time, the adults
will also moult—we saw a rare moulting penguin, but the process hadn’t started
for most of them. This is not a slow
process like most birds, but happens over a 2-3 week period during which the
penguins are not water proof . They
don’t eat because they can’t go fishing and
need to sit on the shore and wait for the new feathers to push out the
old one .
The penguins biggest predator is the leopard seals that can
jump up on the ice and snatch a seal very fast.
They need to eat 8-10 penguins daily.
Skuas take their toll on unsuspecting parents. We saw a skaur snatch an egg from a penguin
nest, drop it on the ground and eat the contact, then fly back for
another! We also saw another skua grab a
baby out of the nest that his parent was sitting on, and fly away with the
helpless baby in it’s beak!
Oil slicks are one of the worst things that can happen to
penguins—like most birds. Their feathers
have to be waterproof for them to survive.
We've been issued boots to wear during our time onshore. All of our landing will be water landings and we will actually get out in the water.. The crew member pilots the zodiac to the
shore. One by one, we sit on the side of
the zodiac,
swing our feet over the outside and slide down the zodiac with 2 sets of arms
helping us and hopefully land in water that is below the height of our boots. So far, so good. Dry feet. To get back in the zodiac, we have a step
stool in the water to go up, then sit on the side of the zodiac, swing our feet
to the inside and slide down into place with our feet inside the zodiac. To keep Antarctica in pristine condition and
not introduce any new species of plants, seeds or cause any cross
contamination, prior to going onshore, we step in a disinfectant bath. After we have walked on any of the landings,
we have an automatic washer to clean our boots and again step in
disinfectant!
The plan for today was to land on Cuverville Island, a small
island at 64 degrees S to see a Gentoo
penguin rookery. This morning is
snowing, 32 F and very breezy—in fact too breezy to land at Cuverville Island,
so like every day, we have an alternate plan.
It’s Danco Island with a steep hike up a snowy path and unstable
shale-like rock. A smaller rookery of
Gentoo penguins live here. The entire
ship is divided into bird/mammal/seal groups and subgroups. I am a Gentoo penguin in the Penguins
group. When it’s our turn to go cruising
or do a landing, we hear an overhead announcement. “Penguins” go to the tender loading
area”. So, being a Gentoo, I’m attached
to the group of penguins that we saw today. The penguins are so adorable it’s
really hard not to use trite phrases to describe them! So here’s a picture!
They are easy to tell from the other breed that we’ve seen by their red beaks and they have white marking on
their forehead that make them all look like they’re wearing earphones.
The rookery is full of penguins that are making all kinds of noises. As one of the mates come back with food, they call to find each other, babies make noises to get food, and adults throw their heads back in the air and make a screeching noise when a skua comes near. The skuas circle the nest looking for babies to snatch for unsuspecting, non-attentative parents. I saw one circling groups of penguins that are basically screaming at him and he snatched a baby and flew away so fast, I couldn’t believe that I’d seen it! He was soon back for more. Earlier, we saw a skua grab an egg out of a nest, drop it on a rock, eat the embryo and fly back looking for more. The rookery is not only noisy, but dirty and it is much better not to be downwind. The smell permeates our clothes for hours after returning to the ship.
A chinstrap penguin
skua
Penguins work very, very hard at keeping their 2 eggs and their babies safe. Male and female guard the egg, the chick, feed the babies. If a baby penguins loses one parent, he will not survive. Look carefully at the bottom in front of the parent and you'll see 2 fuzzy gray babies!
More penguins--you just can't help but smile--
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