A macaroni penguin couple in the grass in Cooper Bay, South Georgia
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Figured I should post this
2 weeks ago
Monday, November 9, 2009
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Penguins Push and Shove?
Explorers learn from penguins' 'push and shove experience'
Friday, November 06, 2009, 09:10
TWO emblems from Torquay's wildlife attraction at Living Coasts are heading as far south as it is possible.
Two adventurers are taking a Living Coasts flag and Penguin Academy T-shirts to the South Pole as part of a bid to rack up a polar first.
The pair, John Wilton-Davies and Justin Miles, both from Exeter, are planning to do the first 4,500km unassisted, unsupported ski expedition from the ice edge of Antarctica to the South Pole and back in November 2010.
And as part of their preparations they visited Living Coasts to meet penguins and to learn more about conservation work.
A Living Coasts spokesman said the two explorers are building links with education and conservation bodies.
"What better way for Living Coasts to flag up its conservation work with penguins and other coastal species than by having its name taken, quite literally, to the ends of the Earth?
"We wish them well on this incredibly journey and we look forward to seeing them flying the flag for Living Coasts at the South Pole."
The Penguin Academy is a computer game which be can played both at Living Coasts and online.
Living Coasts donates money to the South African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds as African penguins are declining due to a lack of food blamed on over-fishing and possible climate change.
It also contributes to a conservation and research programme set up by Bristol Zoo to find a way to artificially establish new colonies closer to the fish stocks.
It is part of the European breeding programme for African penguins.
John said: "Penguins survive in the harshest of environments and we wanted to see what we could learn from them.
"We were interested in the way that penguins group together to share body heat and protect themselves from the wind, though this can be a bit of a push and shove experience."
Source:
http://www.thisissouthdevon.co.uk/news/Explorers-learn-penguins-push-shove-experience/article-1489743-detail/article.html
Friday, November 06, 2009, 09:10
TWO emblems from Torquay's wildlife attraction at Living Coasts are heading as far south as it is possible.
Two adventurers are taking a Living Coasts flag and Penguin Academy T-shirts to the South Pole as part of a bid to rack up a polar first.
The pair, John Wilton-Davies and Justin Miles, both from Exeter, are planning to do the first 4,500km unassisted, unsupported ski expedition from the ice edge of Antarctica to the South Pole and back in November 2010.
And as part of their preparations they visited Living Coasts to meet penguins and to learn more about conservation work.
A Living Coasts spokesman said the two explorers are building links with education and conservation bodies.
"What better way for Living Coasts to flag up its conservation work with penguins and other coastal species than by having its name taken, quite literally, to the ends of the Earth?
"We wish them well on this incredibly journey and we look forward to seeing them flying the flag for Living Coasts at the South Pole."
The Penguin Academy is a computer game which be can played both at Living Coasts and online.
Living Coasts donates money to the South African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds as African penguins are declining due to a lack of food blamed on over-fishing and possible climate change.
It also contributes to a conservation and research programme set up by Bristol Zoo to find a way to artificially establish new colonies closer to the fish stocks.
It is part of the European breeding programme for African penguins.
John said: "Penguins survive in the harshest of environments and we wanted to see what we could learn from them.
"We were interested in the way that penguins group together to share body heat and protect themselves from the wind, though this can be a bit of a push and shove experience."
Source:
http://www.thisissouthdevon.co.uk/news/Explorers-learn-penguins-push-shove-experience/article-1489743-detail/article.html
Friday, November 6, 2009
Meet Bert and Ernie
EcoWorld Aquarium Nicknamed Two Little Blue Penguin Chicks "Bert and Ernie"
Wed, 11/4/2009 - 7:56 AM
By John Reuhman
Picton, New Zealand - New father Regan Russell is taking extra care of the latest arrivals at EcoWorld Aquarium. The two Little Blue Penguin chicks have been affectionately nicknamed “Bert and Ernie”.
In response to a distress call from a concerned member of the public Regan, EcoWorld's manager, rescued the two starving penguin chicks from the Picton Foreshore.
“The chicks are very lucky to be alive. I found them in a poor state, starving and shivering. They were next to the mauled body of an adult penguin. Mum maybe.
It looks like a dog might have attacked the penguin and killed it.
I went back the next day and sadly I found two more dead penguin chicks. They look like might have also been savaged by a dog, perhaps one of those randoms allowed to run loose on the Picton Foreshore ! We hear quite a bit about penguins being hammered in and around Picton”.
Regan and the staff at EcoWorld Aquarium are really taken with Bert and Ernie, who are thriving on their diet of salmon smelt.
“The new penguin chicks are in safe hands getting twice daily feeds of salmon smelt. They're really ravenous. We weigh them each day to check on their progress. We hope they'll be released back into the wild around Christmas time.
We expect to be caring for more injured penguins over the summer. We've established a refuge and safe breeding area with 10 nest boxes. The penguins will be free to come and go as they please”.
Korora or Little Blue Penguins (Eudyptula minor), are found all along New Zealand's coastline and often fall prey to rats, cats, dogs and other predators. Little Blue Penguins are in decline in the wild, especially in areas where they are not protected from predators. The Department of Conservation now ranks them as “Lower risk – near threatened”.
If anyone finds an injured or ill Little Blue Penguin they should contact the local DOC office.
Photo: 1 year old Finn Russell gets up close with new local Ernie
To view EcoWorld Aquarium's web page on Zoo and Aquarium Visitor, go to: http://www.zandavisitor.com/forumtopicdetail-3116-EcoWorld_Aquarium
Source:
http://www.zandavisitor.com/newsarticle-2478-EcoWorld_Aquarium_Nicknamed_Two_Little_Blue_Penguin_Chicks_Bert_and_Ernie
The story of penguin’s love for zookeeper
Peter Vollbracht and Sandy
From The Times
November 5, 2009
Germany transfixed by story of penguin’s love for zookeeper
Roger Boyes in Berlin
When Sandy started her search for a mate, Peter must have looked quite a catch: almost 6ft, no beak but an impressive moustache, fluent guttural German rather than an irritating high-pitched squawk. Put him in a tux, she must have thought, and he would do — a man to lay eggs with.
The tale of Sandy, 14, a South African penguin, and Peter Vollbracht, 47, a zookeeper, is a saga of enduring love, separation and fidelity that has captivated Germany — a parable for a society troubled by high divorce rates and marital breakdowns.
Penguins are till-death-do-us-part monogamous and as a result are very selective when choosing a mate. Yet soon after arriving at Münster Zoo in northwest Germany at the age of 2, Sandy had Mr Vollbracht in her sights.
There must be something about German zookeepers.
The celebrity polar bear at Berlin Zoo, Knut, became attached to his keeper Thomas Doerflein, who strummed Elvis songs while the cub was in intensive care. Mr Doerflein hand-reared the bear, rescued him from the compound in Berlin zoo, helped him through teething, taught him to swim and to dribble a basketball. Mr Vollbracht went down a similar route. He and Sandy became inseparable. When the keeper took the zoo’s 80 penguins for their daily waddle, Sandy would skip to the front so she could walk next to her man.
Despite what the advertising world may have you believe, it is extremely difficult to pick up a penguin. If humans get too close they think they are under attack, and hack at them with their sharp beaks. But Sandy allowed Mr Vollbracht to carry her around. Soon she became Germany’s most strokable penguin. School classes, lovers seeking inspiration, even clinically depressed patients advised that man-to-bird touching could be helpful, all flocked to the zoo. Inevitably, the two appeared on television and in films.
Penguin Overboard, a made-for-television drama, features the kidnapping of Sandy; her rescue brings together a female zoo director and a shabby-looking but warm-hearted keeper. For some Germans at least, Sandy seemed to possess Cupid-like match-making powers.
But then Mr Vollbracht slipped a disc and was off work for two months. Sandy must have assumed he had died and she was therefore no longer bound by her penguin vows. She found an adequate mate, Tom — no moustache, no gumboots, but at 5 years old, significantly younger. Last year Tom and Sandy started a family, and had two chicks. “Ultimately it was better for her to live a normal penguin life,” said Mr Vollbracht, who is married with a human wife and two children.
Six weeks ago Tom died. The chicks were fostered out, and Sandy, back on the singles market, immediately took up with her old flame.
“After Tom died she was looking for someone and I was there,” he said. One day Sandy will have to find another penguin, but for now she is happy with Mr Vollbracht.
“We can’t find her a partner,” said Mr Vollbracht. “It’s her decision.”
Source:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6903709.ece
March of the Penguins - Limited Edition Giftset
March of the Penguins - Limited Edition Giftset
Written by Jess Goodwin
Wednesday, 04 November 2009
Movie Score:
8.0
Picture:
8.0
Sound:
8.0
Extras:
9.0
Score:
8.0
Director(s): Luc Jacquet
Writer(s): Jordan Roberts and Luc Jacquet
Starring: Morgan Freeman
Genre: Children & Family • Documentary
Website: http://www.warnerbros.com/
Release Date: November 03, 2009
Rated: G
List Price: DVD - $35.99
Amazon:
March of the Penguins, Luc Jacquet's 2005 documentary about Antarctica's emperor penguins and their harrowing annual journey to complete the circle of life, will melt even the iciest of hearts. It showcases an odd dichotomy — unbearable cuteness and sniffle-inducing sadness — that will pull at your heartstrings no matter how many times you watch it. If you don't shed a tear or two, out of sorrow or otherwise, you're probably a sociopath.
Narrated by Morgan Freeman (before there was any question about whether or not it was okay to be Morgan Freeman), the story appeals to a number of emotional triggers; you'll laugh, you'll cry (hopefully), you'll worry. The movie's stance on its subject matter is for the most part objective, but the content is delivered in such a way that you can't help but feel for these penguins. As Freeman points out, “They're not that different from us, really.” They're mating rituals echo our own, as does their devotion to their children. The similarities are what get you — they may just be animals, and it may just be nature taking its course, but it's still sad when a penguin, weakened and fatigued, gets left behind to disappear into the cold, or when a couple loses its chick to the harsh weather, or their own inexperience or bad luck. We don't know what the penguins might be thinking, if it can even be explained in a way that we would understand, but we can imagine that a mother cries out when she returns from her long quest for food to find that her chick has not survived, or the crushing disappointment a father might feel when his newly-hatched chick freezes to death. One particularly heart-wrenching moment reveals a mother penguin bemoaning the loss of her chick, frozen in a surprise blizzard.
This is surely what made this film as wildly popular as it is. It did well at the box office, bringing in roughly fifteen times as much as it was made for, and took 2005's Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, along with a slew of other awards. Audiences young and old loved it, and even if you've already bought March on DVD, this new edition is well worth it.
DVD Bonus Features:
Why is it worth it? The extras! Along with March, Disc One includes “Of Penguins and Men,” an hourlong documentary about the making of March of the Penguins; National Geographic's “Crittercam: Emperor Penguins,” featuring footage taken by cameras attached to some of the penguins; “8 Ball Bunny”, a classic Looney Toons cartoon about Bugs Bunny's attempts to help the adorable albeit overly-sensitive little Playboy Penguin, who gets left behind while his stage show heads out of town; and the trailer.
On Disc Two of this edition is another hourlong documentary, On the Wings of Penguins, which chronicles the African penguin, or “jackass penguin.” It seems a bit more geared toward the kids, what with the kitschy music and sometimes goofy post-production shot edits; but it's informative and cute, and while by no means comparable to March, is a decent supplement.
The set also includes a stack of stills from both March and Wings, and, what may be the best part of this release, the softest stuffed toy penguin ever.
Source:
http://www.justpressplay.net/movie-reviews/929-dvd-reviews/6121-march-of-the-penguins.html
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
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