Penguins, Whales, and Drake's Passage

Day 05 and 06 were sea days and sea days mean more educational lectures.  I learned about many things but most memorable (for me anyway) were three subjects; Penguins, Whales and Drake's Passage.  I'll create separate blogs about Whales and Drake's Passage, but here's what I found interesting about the Penguins.

We learned that there are 17 species of penguins, but on this trip we were likely to see four of them.  We also learned that penguins and their eggs are not sought as a food source for humans resulting in penguins having on natural fear of the human species.

Penguins live almost exclusively in the southern hemisphere (I have to say almost because the Galapagos penguin has been known to wander north of the equator from time to time).  With the exception of the Galapagos penguin, all the others need a cold water climate to survive.

King Penguin:  The king is the largest of the penguins we might see (and the second largest species of penguin behind the emperor penguin).  Here are some King Penguin fun facts:

• They average 3.1 feet tall and weigh around 33 pounds. 
• There are currently between 2 and 3.2 million breeding pairs of these penguins. 
• We wouldn't be likely to see these animals while we're in Antarctica because they like to hang out in Sub-Antarctic areas between 46 and 55 degrees south.  The good news was the Michelle booked an excursion for us when we visited Ft Stanley in the Falkland Islands (51 degrees south) where we would go to a rookery with King penguins so we would see some up close and personal on the way back.
• King penguins don't make a nest.  They lay one egg at a time and carry it around on their foot for the full 55 day incubation period.
• The penguins have a flap of skin that flops over the egg to keep it warm.
• Every 6 to 18 days the egg is passed from one parent to the other.  The one who gives the egg up then waddles back to the ocean, dives in and heads out on an extended food foraging trip. 
• The food they like to eat mostly fish, squid and other forms of sea life, but unlike most other species of penguin, the King's don't much care for krill.
• Once the egg hatches the chick stays on a parent's foot for the first 30 to 40 days while it grows big enough to provide it's own warmth.
• The chick commonly waits between 3 and 14 days between parents swapping duties (and the chick being fed)
• King penguins dive as much as 1600 feet deep and walk up to 60 miles a day.

The best King Penguin story: During the lecture we were told that during last year's cruise a Japanese gentleman handed the camera to his wife and "Take a picture of me hugging this penguin!".  He walked over to the King penguin, that was about the size of a 5 year old child.  The penguin watched him but did not try to escape.  The man then reached around and grabbed the penguin in a big hug.  The penguin quietly pulled his leg back and kicked the man so hard that it shattered the man's leg.  The man fell to the ground in a pile and the penguin simply walked away.

Apparently when you swim hundreds of miles chasing down your dinner and you walk 60 miles a day in those funny penguin baby steps you build up extremely strong legs.

(When the lecturer told us this story the crowd cheered when the penguin broke the guy's leg).

Magellanic Penguin: Probably the most amusing thing about the Magellanic Penguin is the trait that gave this penguin the nickname "Jackass Penguin" based on how they sound.

You Tube Video by Brett Bartker

These are probably the easiest penguins to identify because of the distinctive white feathers with parallel black feathers that circle their eye.  They got their name from the maritime explorer Ferdinand Magellan who was the first to record the animal during an expedition in the year 1519.  They can be found as far north as 40 degrees of latitude all the way to the southern most tip of South America.

• They are typically between 2 and 2.5 feet tall.
• They weigh between 6 and 19 pounds.
• They can swim at an upper speed of 22 miles per hour.
• The Magellan Penguin is highly sociable and likes to live around numerous other penguins in large colonies.
• They prefer sardines, cuttlefish, squid, and krill but eat a number of other aquatic animals.
• These penguins are a tasty snack for leopard seals, large fur seals, sharks and Orcas.
• The Magellanic penguin is listed as an endangered animal. 

Chinstrap Penguin: The chinstrap penguin is so named because of a band of black feathers that runs from their black skull cap down under their chin.  They live in the Antarctic islands, Antarctic Peninsula, and Circumpolar regions.

The Antarctic region where these penguins live has the strongest winds on the planet.  To keep their eggs from blowing away, these animals like to line their nests with small stones.  Unfortunately, even though they breed on rocky coasts as far away from ice as possible, the areas typically have shortage of the small stones that are needed.  The result is that the penguins are commonly involved in squabbles and most of the penguins are experienced kleptomaniacs that take nesting material from any other nests that are not adequately guarded.  The stones circulate between nests as they are stolen, claimed back, and then stolen again.

•  The average size is 27 inches tall
• Average weight is 10 pounds
• There are an estimated 8 million of the birds and colonies can number in the hundreds of thousands.
• The feed almost exclusively on krill.
• These penguins are the lowest concern for endangerment.
• Most humans will never see a chinstrap penguin out of captivity.
• When they aren't on land the chinstrap penguins will often toboggan along by sliding on their stomachs.

Gentoo Penguin: I guess I saved the best for last.  The third largest penguin (behind the Emperor and King) the Gentoo is my personal favorite.  This happened when the lecturer told me that the Gentoo is the penguin that is most likely to untie your shoes.

Some Gentoo Penguin facts:

• Average life span is 15 to 20 years.
• Average size is 30 inches tall and 12 pounds.
• Like the chinstrap, the Gentoo lives in the antarctic peninsula and surrounding islands.  For this reasons, most humans will never see a Gentoo outside captivity.
• The Gentoo is the fastest penguin.
    
• Gentoos are highly nurturing parents and often form long lasting bonds with their offspring.
• They lay two eggs each year and the parents take turns incubating them for up to a month at a time (while the other parent goes out after food)
• In pursuit of food  (fish, squid, and krill) they can dive down as deep as 655 feet and remain under water for as much as 7 minutes at a time.

As stated earlier, the Gentoo does not consider humans to be any kind of a threat and as long as people are not approaching their nesting areas, these penguins are quite happy to carry on a conversation with us.  If you see a group walking in a certain direction and then take a seat ahead of where they seem to be heading, the Gentoo won't change course to avoid you.  If that means jumping up on your lap as he passes by, he's fine with that.  If the penguin happens to notice your shoe laces while passing through it may become curious and tug on the laces while exploring what he has found.  The following video shows how terrified a baby Gentoo is when he comes across a human.

The natural predators of the Gentoo penguin are leopard seals, sea lions and orcas.  I found this video (the following one, not the former) on you tube and found it to be interesting for three reasons.  First, it was cool to see a penguin escape certain death as a killer whale snack, second once the penguin jumps into the boat to avoid the whales, the natural curiosity kicks in and the penguin immediately begins to check the people out.  This interest in people is why the Gentoo is my favorite.