Monday, November 10, 2008

Penguins of South Georgia Island Update



“And then there was one”…….just one King Penguin chick is left of the four hatched before winter at Penguin River. The chick has been joined by about thirty moulting adult birds, which must improve its chance of survival; the other birds will help fend off predatory birds such as Skuas and Giant Petrels. Can it make it through to fledge?



Gentoo Penguins, one of the few permanent residents of Bird Island, are also incubating their eggs, and the last two days of the month we have been busy counting the 4095 breeding pairs around the island.

Macaroni Penguins, which left last April, are coming back for the summer; first the males, to defend the small pile of stones they use as a nest. It’s strange to see ‘Big Mac’ colony empty and quiet at the beginning of the week; then with just one penguin, which seems lost; then a second one, followed soon after by another one and another one. Like that about two thousand had reoccupied the colony at the end of the first week….Soon 40 thousand of them will change Goldcrest Point into the noisiest place on the island.

And all these activities on the island don’t stop during the night, thousands of prions and petrels take over till dawn displaying and calling at the entrance of their burrow where they will breed, protected from Skuas.

Story courtesy of South Georgia Newsletter @

http://www.sgisland.gs/index.php/(h)South_Georgia_Newsletter%2C_October_2008?useskin=

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