Dallas, TX -- It was the march of the penguins Wednesday morning at the Dallas Zoo.
"Today,
we actually celebrated the first swim for our two penguin chicks.
They're about three months old, and we just put them out in the pool.
Mom and dad came out for a little bit along with the older sister," said
Sprina Liu, Curator of Births at the Dallas Zoo.
That's right, the new additions are taking their first penguin plunge.
"They
did great. Their first drop in the water was a little bit ungraceful,
but they quickly learned, got in and out of the pool pretty quickly, so
we're pretty happy with how they did," Liu said.
Once these chicks
got in the water, they didn't waste time, but this was a test run to
see how they'll do when they're introduced to the rest of the penguin
posse.
"That's going to happen in the next week or so. We're going
to let them out in the exhibit in the morning, let them get in and out
of the pool. Make sure they're comfortable getting in and out okay, and
then introduce them to the rest of the group," Liu said.
In the meantime, this crowd will have a chance to see these guys swim around.
Three Humboldt penguin chicks - classed as an endangered species - have hatched at a north Wales zoo. The Humboldt breeds in coastal Chile and Peru, but numbers have been
declining, with only 7,000-10,000 estimated to be left in the wild. New chicks Wellington, Mack and Poncho recently hatched at The Welsh
Mountain Zoo in Conwy, where keepers say they are growing fast.
Three Humboldt penguin chicks have been born at the Welsh Mountain Zoo, which has reared penguins for years. Credit: The Welsh Mountain Zoo
Luckily our breeding pairs are now very experienced and we do not
need to intervene by hand-rearing. We do not interfere. All we do is
offer food to the parent in the burrow, who is incubating the eggs three
times a day, and when the chick hatches we take a 'hatch weight' which
is around 65-80 grams.
When they are around two years old, they will go off to join a
different collection where they will hopefully find their life partner,
as Humboldt penguins are monogamous.
The first conqueror of Mount
Everest, the creator of Pippi Longstocking and Crimean landmarks appear
on 2015's most attractive currency bills.
Image credit:
International Bank Note Society
New
Zealand's five-dollar note, which features Mount Everest's first
conqueror Sir Edmund Hillary, has been adjudged as the world's best
banknote for 2015 by the International Bank Note Society.
The
Society, a nonprofit educational organisation which has more than 20,000
members in close to 100 countries, picked the banknote sanctioned by
the Reserve Bank of New Zealand as a "clear winner" from among three dozen nominees.
The
notes are assessed for “artistic merit and/or innovative security
features”, including use of colour, contrast and balance.
The orange and brown $5 note displays a map of New Zealand in a polymer window as well as numerous upgraded security features.
In
addition to Hillary, who passed away in 2008, the face features South
Island’s Mount Cook and a colour-changing yellow-eyed penguin. The back
design also features this rare penguin unique to New Zealand, as well as
local flora. Almost 150 new banknotes were released worldwide in 2015. The Society narrowed down the nominees to 20 from
Europe, Asia, South America, and Africa. India was not among these picks.
STAFF at Flamingo Land are having to p..p..pick up a penguin after
several baby chicks arrived at the theme park zoo near Pickering.
Zoo manager Ross Snipp said zoo keepers were keeping a close eye on
them to check they are gaining weight and growing as expected.
“Each day the chicks are weighed and their growth and vital statistics plotted to ensure they flourish," he said.
The Humboldt penguins are found in the southern hemisphere, generally
off the coasts of Peru and Chile, and are named after the ‘Humboldt
Current.'
A spokeswoman said a fantastic ‘penguin experience’ could be enjoyed
at Flamingo Land which allowed children over the age of 8, with under
12s accompanied by an adult, to feed the penguins.
In honour of World Penguin Day (25 April), we’re thrilled to have
this guest post about moulting penguins from Trudi Webster,
Conservation Science Advisor at the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust. Plus, it gives us an excuse to link to this year-round favourite. Visit the Otago Museum's Nature galleries or Animal Attic to learn more about penguins.
Image: Moulting yellow-eyed penguin, Richard Giddins, Flickr, CC BY 2.0.
Out with the old, in with the new
Over time a penguin’s feathers wear and break. Daily activities such
as preening, swimming, landing on the beach after a day at sea or
rubbing against bushes at a nest site cause feathers to deteriorate. To
restore these feathers, penguins go through a moult – old feathers are
pushed out and replaced by new ones. Penguins often look a bit scruffy
during the moult as their old feathers fall out in patches. So if you
see a penguin looking down-on-its-luck, don’t judge it too harshly – it
might just be moulting!
Penguin feathers are highly specialized. They are essential for
keeping it warm and dry while swimming in the cold ocean, and have
developed to be short, broad and closely spaced, to trap air against the
skin.
Timing is everything
Penguins lose their insulating and waterproofing capabilities while
moulting, so they must stay out of the water. It takes yellow-eyed
penguins about three to four weeks to replace their feathers each year.
Since they can’t go fishing without the the full complement of feathers,
they need to increase their food intake before moulting begins to
sustain them while they are stuck on land.
It takes a lot of energy to build new feathers. Penguins typically
time their moults to avoid periods of high energy demands, such as
the breeding season. The most common moulting time is just after
breeding, when food is still plentiful but chicks no longer need to be
fed. Juvenile and non-breeding yellow-eyed penguins moult first,
starting in late February. Yellow-eyed penguin parents start moulting in
March, which gives them a few weeks of time to recover and put on
weight after breeding.
How to treat a moulting penguin
Moulting can be a stressful and dangerous time for birds. Their
energy levels are low and starvation is a possibility if they have not
managed to put on enough weight. Birds are more susceptible to predators
and disturbance, and the missing feathers compromise their insulation
and protection from cold or rain.
If you see a moulting penguin, you can help by giving it a wide berth
and keeping dogs on a leash. If you find a distressed or injured
penguin, or someone harassing a penguin, contact the Department of Conservation on 0800 362 468.
PENGUIN conservationists in Weymouth want residents to make wise choices when it comes to seafood.
Today marks World Penguin Day and staff at Weymouth Sea Life Adventure
Park have stressed the importance of avoiding seafood that is fished
through methods which have an impact on penguins.
The park has a colony of 14 Humboldt penguins, which are native to coastal regions of Chile and Peru.
Its breeding programme has produced 14 successful hatches to date,
with 10 of the penguins sent out to take part in breeding programmes at
other Sea Life parks in the UK.
Jo Mullen, aquarist at Weymouth Sea Life, said: "It’s mostly about
education and we like to spread the message about penguins because I
think they tend to be misunderstood.
"Everybody thinks of cold species, but there are only actually three
types that live in snow and all of the others live in warmer climates.
"We like to spread the message that it’s not just about ice caps
melting; it’s actually to do with overfishing and human interference."
The park offers visitors the chance to adopt one of the penguins in order to raise money for conservation efforts.
It also provides copies of the Marine Conservation Society's 'Good
Fish Guide', which offers advice on the best fish to buy and the most
ethical places from which to buy it.
"It’s not about not eating fish; it’s just about making the right choices," said Jo.
"Certain methods, like bottom trawling, are actually quite dangerous
because they catch a lot of other creatures – not just the target
animal.
"For example, prawns are bottom trawled and for every pound of prawns, they can catch up to 4lbs of other aquatic species.
"Sustainable fishing is just about knowing where your fish comes from and buying locally if you can."
All species of penguins are vulnerable in the wild, largely as a result of overfishing by humans.
Jo added: "They are fantastic little creatures because they’ve got big
personalities and they’re monogamous, so they tend to mate for life.
"They’re pretty good mums and dads, so one will sit on the eggs and the other will go and get food.
"When the chick hatches, they will spend up to two months sitting on the chicks themselves to look after them."
"They’re a bit like humans in that they care a lot for their children.
"They’re very dedicated and I think that in itself is really endearing."
Please read the following paragraph in Morgan Freeman’s voice:
And here we have the humble penguin, marching feet and all. Everything
about the penguin is adapted for its semi-aquatic lifestyle, from its
cheerful rotundity to its OH MY GOD WHAT IS UP WITH ITS MOUTH!?
For World Penguin Day, Nerdist would like to take a moment
to remind you that for how adorable penguins are, their mouths are
hellscapes. Open a penguin’s mouth, like the Enoshima Aquarium did in
the video above, and you’ll find rows upon rows of backwards-facing
spines.
The horrifying sight is a result of the penguin’s diet. Animals like
you and me chew our food, usually dead food that won’t fight its way
back up an esophagus. Penguins, on the other hand, eat their food — wet,
wriggling fish — whole. To make the consumption of fish easier,
especially underwater, penguins evolved spiked mouths and tongues to
function like those tire spikes at a fancy parking lot — fish can
proceed forwards (into the bird’s belly), but not backwards.
Other creatures have evolved a similar solution to eating slippery
sea food. For whatever reason, I’m assuming most of us think that the
interior of a turtle’s mouth is as docile as the animal. Not true for
the leatherback sea turtle. Feasting almost exclusively on goopy
jellyfish, the turtle’s mouth is as scary as a penguin’s. Actually
worse.
A leatherback sea turtle esophagus is not the most inviting place.
Not only does a penguin’s mouth prevent backwards movement, its
tongue is much like a sarlacc pit — ever undulating to facilitate
movement from the front of the mouth to the back.
Happy World Penguin Day! Celebrate everyone's favorite monochrome, flightless bird with some fun toys and gadgets.
1. PAPERCLIPS; $7
Keep all your important files together with these adorable
penguin-shaped paperclips—the bird's "wing" slips over the paper to hold
everything in place. The set of 30 comes in a stylish blue box. Find it:Amazon
2. SCREWDRIVER; $13
This small and portable screwdriver is great for repairs on the go.
It comes with six different types of bits: Phillips #0 and #2, slotted
2.5 and 4mm, Hex 4, and 5mm. Find it:Amazon
3. USB FLASH DRIVE; $10
This penguin-shaped flash drive is perfect for storming 8GB of penguin trivia—just pop off the bird’s head and plug the body in. Find it:Amazon
4. BALLOON PET; $14
If you can't have a real penguin for a pet, this balloon is the next
best thing: It's weighted to land on its feet and can be dragged around
by an attached leash. It can be refilled, so your inflatable pet will
last more than a few hours. Find it:Amazon
5. LED LIGHTS; $3
These vibrant LED lights are perfect for illuminating dark hallways
and bathrooms or throwing Antarctica-themed raves. The squishy plastic
lights cycle through three colors: red, blue, and green. Find it:Amazon
6. ICE MOLD; $7
Make penguin-shaped ice cubes, chocolates, gummies, or anything else
you can think of with this helpful silicone mold. It’s heat resistant,
machine washable, and microwave safe. Find it:Amazon
7. CORKSCREW; $15
Why have a regular corkscrew when you can have one that looks like a
penguin? This corkscrew, which is touted to be "The Best Flightless Bird
Bottle Opener on the Market," is plastic with a stainless steel worm
and was inspired by the penguins on the South Pole. Find it:Amazon
8. COCKTAIL SHAKER; $20
Make your cocktails even fancier with the help of nature’s most dapper animal. Find it:Amazon
9. PENGUIN GUMMIES; $7
Lovers of gummy bears and Gushers will love these Trader Joe’s
penguin gummies, which marry the two. The fat-free gummies have bellies
filled with naturally flavored syrups in cherry, lime, and strawberry.
Best of all, you get to skip the lines at Trader Joe’s if you order
online. Find it:Amazon
10. LAUNDRY HAMPER; $18
This adorable, collapsible hamper is the perfect to thing to keep
your dirty clothes together before laundry day. Thanks to its round top,
it looks like the penguin is eating the clothes, making picking up
dirty clothing and tossing it in the hamper kind of fun. Find it:Amazon
11. PENGUIN-OPOLY; $20
Celebrate your love of penguins with a boardgame that’s fun for the whole family. (This is not an actual branded game of Monopoly,
but rather “-opoly inspired” so expect a bit of a twist on the classic
format.) Two to six people can play at a time and learn fun penguin
facts as they go. Find it:Amazon
12. PINGU; $2.99
This British-Swiss children’s claymation show, Pingu,
follows the titular character—a young penguin—as he gets into some
trouble. The show’s characters have their own adorable language called
"Penguinese" that you'll be quoting in no time. Noot noot! Find it:Amazon
13. DUCT TAPE; $5
Is it duct tape or duck tape? Turns out it’s both,
but this particular roll is penguin tape. Use it to repair or create,
or just to embellish all the tragically un-penguin items in your life. Find it:Amazon
1) You find your life partner through *song*. Horseshoe karaoke anyone?
2) You get to be involved in a Parade. ALL OF THE TIME.
3) You would get to say NOOT NOOT without anyone looking at you weirdly
4) You'd have a *huge* publishing house named after you and you'd receive these awesome jumpers. For free. 5) You'd get to walk down the street to Star Wars without any questions
6) You could have starred in the greatest Christmas advert of all time
7) Got a black tie event coming up? Don't worry about your outfit, you're sorted.
8) You might not be able to fly, but boy you'd be able to swim
9) Forget walking everywhere, you'd get around by traveling on your STOMACH. What's more fun than that?
10) You'd get to meet loads of cool people, who would later go on to voice you in a HUGE movie...
11)...speaking of which, you could have been in Happy Feet (or at least an animated version of you)
12) You'd get invited to loads of cool movie premieres, like The Mary Poppins 40th edition one!
13) You'd just be the cutest thing around - why wouldn't you want to be a penguin?!
April
25th, 2016 is World Penguin Day which marks the migration of these
flightless, feathered creatures' annual migration towards north.
Picture: Supplied
25 April 2016
By:Mark Stratton
London
- Whales have a special day, pangolins too, and every December all
things simian are celebrated, so it seems only right that penguins
should be similarly lauded with World Penguin Day on Monday. The global
observance was launched four years ago when scientists at a US Antarctic
research centre noticed that, without fail, Adelie penguins returned
from the sea to breed on this day every year. It is now used as a means
of promoting their conservation.
My admiration for these aquatic,
flightless birds rose exponentially during an eight-day cruise around
West Antarctica. Like the other 185 passengers on board the Ocean
Endeavour, departing from Argentina's Tierra del Fuego, I wanted to be
wowed by breaching whales, leopard seals' bloodlust, and nature's
borderless paragliders, albatrosses.
Yet penguins are the fabric
of all wildlife-watching voyages to Antarctica. Always waddling around,
they are ready to entertain when whales can't be bothered to surface,
and are all too often an oily lunch for predators in a sub-zero world
that is as chillingly visceral as it is beautiful.
Even in a
landscape as remote as Antarctica, penguins are facing unprecedented
impact from humans, something I'd learn throughout our 1 500
nautical-mile voyage from Dr Tom Hart of Oxford University. This
hitchhiking penguinologist uses Ocean Endeavour to monitor time-lapse
cameras for his Penguin Lifelines project, whose goal is to better
understand the threat to penguins and their fluctuating populations.
The
first thing to admire about these comical creatures is a tenacity to
exist around the Southern Ocean's frozen, wave-battered shorelines. The
region's rigours were introduced to me by a hefty sea swell as we sailed
south from Cape Horn at the tip of South America during a two-day
crossing down the Drake Passage to Antarctica. I lurched around our
reinforced ship like a drunken sailor, lolling between my comfortable
seventh-deck en-suite cabin, lectures on everything from glaciology to
ornithology, the gym, and Polaris Restaurant for Austrian chef Mannfed's
excellent cordon bleu cooking.
Most of the world's 17 penguin
species exist in the circumpolar Antarctic Convergence Zone, where sea
temperatures range from 6ºC to 2ºC and warm sub-Antarctic and cold
Antarctic currents meet, spawning rich, penguin-favoured feeding grounds
of krill (tiny crustaceans). “Penguins don't like cold water, but
they're not stupid. They like the food these waters bring,” lectured
French ornithologist, Fabrice Genevois.
Halfway down the Drake
Passage, it wasn't long before we spotted our first penguins prospecting
for krill, skimming through the water like Wallis' bouncing bombs
trailed by a black-browed albatross.
Soon after, the Antarctic
Peninsula's ice-entombed isthmus was signposted by a floating behemoth
of an iceberg (imagine the White Cliffs of Dover on a world cruise).
Land duly appeared as Ocean Endeavour nosed between Brabant and Envers
Islands near Neko Harbour on the 65th parallel where, on cue, a pod of
humpback whales was gorging on krill.
The combination of blue-hued glaciers and dusky evening light was bewitching.
Planned
daily trips onto land further increased my admiration for penguins.
Even the pong of their fishy guano didn't deter our fleet of Zodiacs
about to storm Neko Harbour, armed with 400mm lenses primed to pap any
penguin that moved. Were the birds bothered? Not a bit.
On snowy
slopes, against the backdrop of a glacier crevassed into teetering ice
towers and wracked by rumbling avalanches, the Gentoo penguins were
presumably preoccupied with survival. These knee-high birds, with a
distinctive white eye-patch, are one of six Antarctic species that breed
on Antarctic land. It was February, nearing summer's end and time was
ticking for the colony's chicks to mature enough to face the onset of
winter. Both parents made food runs while their downy greyish chicks
fussed to be fed. “I've tried the regurgitated krill, it's quite tasty -
a little salty perhaps,” said Genevois. I hoped chef Mannfred didn't
agree. Elsewhere, mature penguins were preening their moulting feathers.
“These
penguins are losers,” commented the ever-phlegmatic Genevois. “They
have time to moult because they didn't breed or lose their chicks.
Dr
Hart, meanwhile, checked a few of his land-and ice-based cameras, in
place to observe the colonies in situ. He explained that his research
suggested this 2 000-pair colony remains stable and reveals that Gentoo
are remaining around the nesting beaches longer into winter than
previously thought. “But this is a late crèche of chicks and quite a few
won't survive the coming winter,” he cautioned.
Next day it was
Chinstraps' turn to get papped. We sailed down the magnificent Lemaire
Channel, whose mountainous flanks of snow and black basalt were
patterned like a Friesian cow's hide.
Chinstrap penguins are a
little smaller than Gentoo, with porcelain-white faces framed by a
delicate black line around their neck. They live beside the Gentoo on a
snowbound promontory, Port Charcot, named by early 20th-century French
expeditionary, Jean-Baptiste Charcot.
Instead of landing, I took a
kayak out for a penguin-eye perspective of their refrigerated world: an
abstract gazpacho of fractured sea ice and bobbing blue-veined bergs,
everevolving into shapes and textures such as scalloped shells, cubes,
Art Deco curves, and floating toadstools, all inextricably dissolving
into seawater as clear as glass.
Chinstraps barrelled past our
kayaks, surfacing frequently for air. As winter's ice locks the
landscape shut, they will head out to sea, fishing exclusively on krill.
They can load up on 800 grams of krill - one-seventh of their body
weight - to carry back to their chicks.
My admiration for their
environment extended to new levels of respect that afternoon. On the
ship's daily menu is a Wandering Albatross and Polar Plunge. The former
is a gin and Cointreau cocktail; the latter a rites-of-passage dip in
the ocean. Joining some of my fellow passengers queuing to take this
unnecessary excursion, I felt like a mutineer about to walk the plank
into the 1.6ºC brine - initial breathlessness, ice-cream headache, then
shock followed in quick succession. The experience lasted barely a
minute and ended with a Ukrainian waiter proffering a welcome shot of
vodka.
Those same hostile waters host fearsome predators where our
admirably brave penguins risk life and flipper every time they fish.
“If this is a leopard seal I want to see him shredding penguins,” said
Gordon, a no-nonsense pipefitter from Medicine Hat, Calgary. Of course,
nobody wanted to see the little chaps getting eaten, but secretly we
hoped they might lure some of Antarctica's mammalian and winged
predators towards our boat, keen to pick up a penguin.
Orcas, for
whom penguins are surely an hors d'oeuvre, offered only distant
sightings. Yet Gordon's lust for penguin gore was sated by magnificent
leopard seals, so named for their spots. One of these big seals
volleyballed an unlucky Gentoo into the air before devouring it.
“Their skin is quite tough, so the leopards have a job biting through,” explained Genevois.
Jostling
for dessert, Antarctica's mightiest winged scavengers, giant southern
petrels, arrived with powerful vulturine beaks to rip into the remaining
carcass, while petite Wilson's storm petrels, nicknamed Jesus Christ
birds because they seemingly walk on water, snaffled morsels of flying
gristle and blubber. Meanwhile, back at the penguin rookeries, predatory
skuas loitered around the chicks to pick off the weakest.
In spite of the natural violence that surrounds them, penguins' biggest adversary is mankind.
Returning
northwards towards Tierra del Fuego after three days on the Antarctic
Peninsula, Ocean Endeavour called at the scenic South Shetland Isles. We
steamed into Deception Island's flooded caldera: its last eruption in
1971 artistically streaked the snowy slopes with cindery, haematite-red
ash. Nearby is Antarctica's largest Chinstrap colony at Baily Head,
where black volcanic beaches are strewn with 50 000 pairs of Chinstraps.
“It's a big colony,” said Dr Hart, “but numbers have fallen by 39
percent since 1986.”
Our onboard lectures muddied any
oversimplified notions I had about anthropogenically induced climate
change. Certainly, dissolving ice sheets are devastating for penguins.
The recently reported Rome-sized Iceberg B09B grounded onto a beach in
Eastern Antarctica and during four years has decimated an Adelie penguin
colony that now has to detour 60 kilometres in search of krill.
But
such ice break-ups may not be down to humans necessarily, cautioned
onboard glaciologist Dr Colin Souness. He explained that the enormous
Larsen Ice Sheet interlocking the Antarctic Peninsula has badly
fragmented over recent decades, yet Eastern Antarctica has been observed
to cool, hinting at the possibility of natural cycles of climate
change.
However, Dr Hart does see direct human activity affecting
penguins. “I'd summarise climate change, fisheries, disease and
pollution, as penguins' biggest threat,” he outlined. “As an educated
guess I'd say the relationship between climate change and krill-fishing
presents the greatest challenge. When krill is over-exploited by
fishing, he explained, it impacts penguins' ability to gather sufficient
food to raise their young. If the ice sheets melt away, fishing can
potentially penetrate deeper into Antarctica. Among other uses, he
explained how krill is used in food colouring for products such as
farmed salmon and Omega 3 oils.
A final disembarkation in the
South Shetlands allowed us the chance to celebrate penguins one last
time. Aitcho Island is fortified by Giant's Causeway-like columnar
basalt, while humpback whales and leopard seals patrol a broad bay of
black sands embedded by beached icebergs offshore.
Mixed colonies
of Gentoo and Chinstraps played the crowd. Tubby, downy chicks huddled
together, generating a fearful din. Others chased downtrodden parents
who plunged into the sea to escape their persistent offspring. I watched
with admiration a brave Gentoo repeatedly chasing away a menacing skua.
Life
for penguins at the bottom of the world is a lot harder than I'd
imagined. These brave little birds deserve celebrating today. I'll
certainly be raising a glass. Something chilled, of course.
They
may live in cold areas but they sure warm our hearts. Here are 10 fun
facts about these flightless birds in celebration of World Penguin Day.
(Photo : Siggy Nowak | Pixabay)
Penguins may
live in chilly regions but they sure melt our hearts. As the global
community celebrates World Penguin Day on April 25, here are 10 fun
facts about these tuxedo-wearing, waddling, flightless birds.
1. Twice a year, the world celebrates having these elegant birds
around. World Penguin Day is celebrated every 25th of April while
Penguin Awareness Day is celebrated every 20th of January.
2. There are 18 penguin species around the world to date, many of which are threatened by the devastating effects of climate change.
3. The emperor penguin, which stands between 36 and 44 inches tall,
is the largest of all penguin species in the world. The emperor penguin
is perhaps also the most popular of all penguin species that have graced
many animated films, including Disney's Happy Feet.
4. Penguins spend around 75 percent of
their life in the sea. While many photos show the birds in huge
colonies on chunks of ice, these birds actually prefer the water where
they search for food such as squid, krill and fish.
5. Penguins sleep while standing up and with flippers out to help
maintain the desired body temperature. They also huddle to keep warm.
Many people think penguins don't sleep because they are seen on their
toes most of the time.
6. Like you and me, penguins can get sunburned when they are in
places that are closer to the equator. If you've even seen a penguin use
its flippers to cover its feet while walking on land, that's their way
of preventing sunburn.
7. All penguin species are carnivorous.
Depending on how much food is readily available, they fight each other
for food sources. While some prefer hunting near the shores, others can
also dive deeper into the water for more food.
8. Some penguins can reproduce as early as 3 years of age, especially the smaller penguin types. The larger ones mature later, between 3 and 8 years of age.
9. Penguins are romantics, well at least to some degree. Many penguin
species often find one life-long partner and can even find them among
thousands of penguins in the mating grounds. Aww.
10. Female penguins can lay up to two eggs for every successful
conception. All couples across penguin species take turns to incubate
the eggs until hatching.
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A new name has been selected for a new penguin at the National Aviary.
A 3-year-old female African Penguin recently came to the National
Aviary from the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California, and the National
Aviary asked the public to vote for one of three possible names for her. The choices were Maggie, Madison or Kenzie.
The winner is…Maggie!
Maggie 10,922
Kenzie 10,378
Madison 2,045
More than 23,000 votes were cast in just a few days. The name Maggie barely edged out Kenzie.
The National Aviary says their new penguin was hatched in captivity and raised by penguin parents.
“Our goal is to encourage these two to form a bond, and hopefully in
the future we’ll see eggs from them,” said Teri Grendzinski, supervisor
of animal collections at the National Aviary.
The Shedd Aquarium announced the name for its newest rockhopper
penguin chick at a special event Monday morning at Lurie Children’s
Hospital — Diego.
Lurie Children’s patients, families, volunteers and staff voted and
chose the name Diego for the 10-month-old male rockhopper penguin, who
was previously known as Chick 23, according to a release from the Shedd.
The chick is the 23rd rockhopper penguin to hatch at the aquarium.
The other choices included Dawson, Lennox and Javier, which were
chosen by the Shedd’s marine mammal staff and reflect the geographic
native habitats of rockhopper penguins.
Diego, who hatched June 9, 2015, currently measures about 18 inches
and weighs between four and six pounds, which is average for an adult
penguin, according to the release. Rockhopper penguins are identified by
their distinctive crest feathers on their heads and bright orange-red
bills.
The Shedd Aquarium’s male rockhopper penguin chick 23 finally has his own name, Diego. | @Shedd Aquarium
A
penguin swims in the Detroit Zoo's new Polk Penguin Conservation
Center, Wednesday, April 13, 2016, in Royal Oak, Mich. The new penguin
habitat that the zoo calls the world's largest such facility offers its
80-plus residents new rocks for climbing, waves, snow and better ice
conditions, while allowing visitors to come nose-to-beak with the
stately birds. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
(WPBN/WGTU)-- Monday is World Penguin Day!
Monday is one of two days throughout the year dedicated to the wobbling birds. April 25th is World Penguin Day and January 20 this Penguin Awareness Day.
According
to the World Wildlife Fund, penguins are a family of 17 to 19 species
of birds that mostly live in the southern hemisphere.
The WWF
says that even though penguins cannot fly across the sky, they can fly
underwater. Instead of wings, penguins have flippers that can propel
their bodies up the 15 miles per hour.
Climate change is a growing
concern for penguins that live in Antarctica-- the emperor penguins and
the Adelie penguins, the WWF reports.
The WWF says "a 2008 WWF
study estimated that 50 percent of the emperor penguins and 75 percent
of the Adelie penguins will likely decline or disappear if global
average temperatures rise above pre-industrial levels by just 2 degrees
Ca scenario that could be reached in less than 40 years."
Jutting out into the Scotia Sea toward the southernmost tips of Chile
and Argentina, the 800-mile-long peninsula is warming at five times the
rate of the planet. Since the mid-20th century, temperatures have risen
on average by 6 to 7 degrees Celsius. The warmer weather has had a
significant impact on the amount of sea ice, with the ice-forming period
in the winter months now about 90 days shorter than it used to be.
“This is important because the advance and retreat of sea ice acts as
a sort of engine that drives more Antarctic marine ecosystem processes,
not the least of which are the aspects of ecology of the three penguin
species,” said Bill Fraser, a penguin expert and ecologist who has been
studying the seabirds from Antarctica’s Palmer Station’s Long-Term
Ecological Research (LTER) area since 1974.
“It’s fair to say these species are the canaries in the coal mine of
Antarctic climate change, super-sensitive to even subtle changes in the
system because their life histories play out in a finely tuned balance
between the availability of sea ice and open water,” he said.
As penguin species face rapid warming on the southern pole, the
impacts of the environmental changes vary from region to region and from
species to species. While it’s clear that climate change is leading to
less sea ice near the peninsula and more open water, what’s less certain
is how these changes are directly linked to the region’s changing
penguin populations, scientists say.
At the same time, the chinstrap and gentoo penguins that prefer
ice-free habitats have experienced population booms in the southern part
of the Antarctic Peninsula as sea ice has declined.
The 2.5-inch-long, shrimp-like crustaceans are dependent on sea ice.
Young krill are protected from harsh winters under the ice, and the
crustaceans eat the single-celled algae called diatoms that grow there.
Andrea Kavanagh, director of the Pew Charitable Trusts’ Global
Penguin Conservation Campaign, said the combined environmental and human
pressures spell trouble for the penguins, whose populations in that
region have declined by 30 percent over the last 30 years.
“Even though there is a huge biomass of krill in the Southern Ocean,
that amount of localized fishing is very bad for the predators in that
region, particularly the penguins who can’t go very far away from land
when they are nesting and breeding. They have to be able to get in and
out pretty quickly to bring back food for their chicks,” said Kavanagh.
Fishing vs. warming
As temperatures continue to rise, there are concerns that without
stricter protections on krill fishing, the industry could expand and put
more pressure on the penguins. Krill fishing is highly concentrated in
one specific area at the northwestern tip of the peninsula. Pew is
campaigning to push fishing farther away from shore and to establish a
marine-protected area.
“People are saying, ‘Look at the penguin populations on the
peninsula; we don’t know why that’s happening, and even if it is just
climate change, we have to not fish there because of the effect of
climate change.’ That is the thing we can eliminate while we try to
figure out this whole climate thing,” Kavanagh said.
Fraser, however, cautioned that the link between krill abundance and penguin populations wasn’t consistent.
Currently, the fishing companies that operate in the Antarctic are
fishing well below the “trigger” level established by the Commission for
the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), which
governs fishing around the continent. CCAMLR regulates catches to stay
within 620,000 metric tons, or 1 percent of the 60 million tons of krill
in the region. The annual catch is about 0.3 percent of that total,
according to the commission.
Cilia Indahl, sustainability director for Norwegian krill fishing
company Aker BioMarine AS, said it would fully support efforts to limit
fishing near the shoreline if researchers showed that fishing was
directly hurting wildlife.
“There is no research as of today that shows krill fishing has any impact on whales, penguins or seals,” Indahl said.
“Actually, the impact of climate change is much more important to address,” she added.
Reprinted from Climatewire with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC. www.eenews.net, 202-628-6500
Sally Bain is hoping that dogs Bell can be taught to leave Eastbourne's penguins alone.
They are cute and small but little blue penguins living in Eastbourne are under attack.
Although cats usually cop the blame for killing native birds, in Eastbourne dogs are the culprit.
York
Bay woman Sally Bain has come up with a unique solution - penguin
aversion training - which she believes is a first for New Zealand.
Just as dogs can be trained not to attack kiwis, they can be trained to leave penguins alone.
Bain
got the idea from the Rimutaka Forest Park Trust, which does kiwi
aversion training to protect the kiwi population behind Wainuiomata.
Dogs
are walked past a stuffed kiwi and if they show an interest, they get a
small electric shock from a collar around their neck.
Bain is not sure how many penguins are killed by dogs but believes it is a significant problem.
"It happens again and again during the breeding season."
Losing penguins to dogs is frustrating because it could be avoided by owners acting responsibly.
She
does not favour banning dogs from the coastal areas of the eastern
bays, as that would only antagonise dog owners. Education, she believes,
is the best bet.
Training dogs to avoid penguins, increased signage and making owners
understand all dogs are a threat is a better approach, she says.
Penguins used to breed all along the coast but the loss of habitat, dogs and cars has reduced their numbers.
The New Zealand population on the mainland is thought to have declined by 60 per cent since the 1960s.
Wellington also has little blue colonies on Matui/Somes, Seatoun, Moa Pt and Ngauranga.
* Saturday April 30, 9.3Oam to 3.30pm in front of Eastbourne RSA. Sally Bain 0211130062.
Penguin facts
* Blue penguins are the smallest penguins in the world at just 35-43cm tall and weigh between one and 1.5kg
* The average life span is six and a half years.
*Penguins travel 15–75 km at sea each day.
*Long-term partnerships are the norm, but divorce is not uncommon.
*Underwater, penguins can reach speeds of six kmph but average two to four kmph.
*Chicks usually return to within a few metres of where they were raised and once settled in an area never move away
* They only come ashore under the cover of darkness.
* They nest in burrows, rock crevices, caves, nesting boxes, or under buildings.
* From June to November penguins come ashore to lay eggs and raise young.
* The chicks are guarded for the first three weeks, after which both parents go to sea to keep up the supply of fish.
*Adults feed their chicks but never their mate.
*Chicks fledge at eight weeks and are independent from then on. - (From the West Coast Penguin Trust).
Assistant
lead bird keeper Kristin Dvorak traveled to South Africa to
rehabilitate African penguin chicks abandoned by their molting parents.
A Keeper Cares for African Penguin Chicks in South Africa
While the zoo and its bird experts strive to ensure that parents, and
not humans, care for their chicks, it doesn’t always work out that way.
I’ve had the opportunity as assistant lead keeper to hand-raise many
species of birds, most recently the zoo’s first-ever Chilean flamingo chicks.
Those experiences proved extremely beneficial. Because it’s also what
I did for two weeks in late November–early December 2015, when I went
to South Africa to care for African penguin chicks.
I made the journey as Lincoln Park Zoo’s 2015 recipient of the Feay
Earthwatch Grant. The grant program, generously funded by zoo donors
Mary and Bruce Feay, helps Lincoln Park Zoo animal-care staff take part
in annual field research expeditions around the world. Through it I was
able to participate in the international volunteer program run by the
South African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Seabirds
(SANCCOB) in Table View, a suburb of Cape Town, South Africa.
SANCCOB is a non-profit conservation center dedicated to seabird
rehabilitation, with a large focus on the endangered African penguin
species. I went there to gain hands-on experience hand-raising African
penguin chicks and see the amount of work involved in rescuing,
rehabilitating and caring for these chicks.
Four African penguin chicks, rehabilitated at SANCCOB, explore
coastal habitat at South Africa’s Stony Point Penguin Colony moments
after their release back into the wild.
The experience also gave me the opportunity to witness some of the
challenges this species faces in its native habitat along the coasts of
South Africa and Namibia. There are approximately 50,000 African
penguins left in the wild—a struggling population reeling from a
catastrophic 70 percent decline over the past 10 years. The decline is
related to human disturbance, egg collection, oil spills, commercial
collection of guano (used by penguins to build burrows for nests) and a
decrease in the food supply caused by several factors, including
overfishing by commercial fisheries and climate change. Lincoln Park Zoo
works with other Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) institutions
to keep this species SAFE through shared conservation efforts such as the African Penguin Species Survival Plan (SSP)®.
Lincoln Park Zoo will be offering a home to African penguins when the Robert and Mayari Pritzker Penguin Cove
opens later this year. The exhibit will be home to a breeding colony
and feature state-of-the-art animal-care amenities and an immersive
guest experience. A dozen nest-box alcoves will be situated on a sandy,
rocky beach next to a pool for swimming and diving. An extensive
underwater-viewing window and a penguin encounter area will give guests
up-close views of these remarkable birds and their behaviors and group
dynamics. At the new exhibit I’ll be able to apply what I learned during
my field-site work in many ways. Besides caring for the zoo’s colony,
I’ll be able to share with visitors and staff the challenges I
personally saw this species face in the wild.
SANCCOB volunteers construct an enclosure for African penguin chicks. Each pen holds 25–30 chicks.
This future work with penguins was on my mind as I made the long
journey to South Africa. I flew from Chicago to London to Cape Town,
which took two days. There was no time for sightseeing—I began work the
day after I arrived!
By 7:45 a.m. that first day everyone was to be in uniform, which
consisted of oil slicks (mid-weight rubber coveralls) that went over my
dry-wicking pants and T-shirt, two neoprene arm guards and one glove for
my left hand. This glove provided protection from biting chicks while
also allowing my other hand to remain “fish-free” while feeding the
chicks. This is important because fish oils can negatively affect the
chicks’ feathers. At 8 a.m. I met with staff and other volunteers to
learn which area I’d be working in, who would be my supervisor for the
day and anything deviating from the norm in that area. I spent that
morning washing dishes and doing a lot of laundry.
Next came my orientation, which involved watching a video about the
center and taking a tour of its facilities. Lunch followed, and then I
went to meet the chicks I’d be working with the remainder of my time.
The first time I saw all these chicks I was amazed by how many were
already at the facility—and even more amazed at how loud they were!
Chicks huddle while waiting for their next feeding. Commonly
called “jackass penguins” for their donkey-like braying, African
penguins are not quiet when communicating their needs.
My assigned area housed about 100–130 African penguin chicks that
were 8–10 weeks old. These chicks were at the center because they’d been
abandoned by their molting parents. When adult penguins molt they are
no longer waterproof, and therefore cannot swim to get fish to feed
their chicks. For that reason it’s unusual for penguins to molt when
they are raising chicks. However, the species’ breeding season is
changing due to environmental shifts caused by climate change. If not
for the intervention of SANCCOB and partners such as CapeNature, these
chicks would not survive.
Park service staff with CapeNature—a public
agency managing nature conservation areas and programs in the Western
Cape region—help by monitoring nest sites and abandoned chicks. If there
are abandoned chicks, SANCCOB is notified, and chicks are transported
to the facility for hand-rearing. SANCCOB staff and volunteers rescued and rehabilitated nearly 300
chicks from October–January, necessitating efficient exam and
management processes.
Here is what a typical day was like for me: At 8 a.m., I went to my
area and chose a pen to work in. Each pen contained about 25–30 chicks. I
picked up each chick, checked its band number to see if it needed
medication and restrained it while feeding it Darrow’s water (water
containing nutritious supplements).
I had to finish this process by 9 a.m. so the chicks could have a
one-hour break between feedings. During that time, I'd take any chicks
with respiratory issues to a nebulization chamber, in which they’d
remain for no longer than seven minutes, or clean their pen while
another volunteer monitored the nebulizing treatment. Chicks come to
SANCCOB due to a variety of conditions, including abandonment, poor
plumage, low weight and respiratory health issues.
Chicks, who’d normally be fed regurgitated fish by their parents,
receive a nutrient-rich fish slurry through a syringe-like dispenser
connected to a tube.
The afternoon regimen was similar. At 1:40 p.m., I prepared fish for a
2 p.m. feeding. After feeding each chick, I applied a mosquito
repellant ointment to the top of its head and put mosquito repellants
throughout the area. These extra precautions were taken because African
penguins are susceptible to malaria.
Dvorak helps penguin chicks into an indoor pool for a strength-building swim during their rehabilitation at SANCCOB.
From 3–3:45 p.m. we got medications ready for the 4 p.m. feeding,
when I gave water and medication (if needed) to the chicks. The last
feeding of the day—a fish-slurry mixture—took place at 5 p.m.
Afterwards, we cleaned our supplies and finished any incomplete records.
I was usually done with work between 5:45–6 p.m.
Most days were basically the same as described above. But on
Thanksgiving Day I was especially thankful for one experience in
particular. We had a special opportunity to see some of the rescued
birds returned to the wild. We released nine African penguins and two
cormorants. This took place with seven volunteers, including our driver,
who drove us two hours to Betty’s Bay, site of the Stony Point Penguin
Colony, one of only three land-based African penguin colonies. Two are
in South Africa; one is in Namibia.
We carried cardboard boxes containing our birds to a ramp near the
ocean, placed the boxes on their sides and opened them so the birds
could walk out. Initially, the penguins did not want to go into the
ocean, but after a little bit of encouragement they walked in and began
swimming.
On Thanksgiving Day, Dvorak and fellow volunteers released nine penguins and two cormorants back into the wild.
Even though I hadn’t worked with the penguins being released that
day, I knew the staff’s tireless efforts had paid off. It was
incredible to see these once weak chicks strong enough to swim in the
ocean and join the rest of the penguins at the colony.
After the release, I was able to look at the colony from an adjacent
boardwalk. I had to keep reminding myself I was seeing these penguins in
the wild and wasn’t at a zoo—the only place I had previously ever seen
penguins. The boardwalk, open to the public, is a big tourist
destination. It was remarkable to see how close visitors could get to
the penguins to observe them swimming, walking and resting in their
natural habitat. Park service staff, who closely supervise the colony,
were available for questions. Informative signage provided further
education about the penguins. I am optimistic this special experience
will help in conserving these endangered birds.
Released African penguin chicks reacquaint themselves with their natural aquatic home at Stony Point Penguin Colony.
Most of the penguin colony’s nest sites looked like they’d been cut
from plastic barrels, with holes added on the sides for air circulation.
One of the challenges facing the species’ wild population is
insufficient nest sites. Guano harvesting in several areas has reduced
appropriate nest sites. Artifical nest sites have been created to
replicate natural nests in the wild. Several methods have been tried to
see which work best. Barrels provide a similar structure to a burrow
excavated naturally. They’re also easy, quick and cheap to construct.
Rocks and shrubs are an option too.
At the zoo’s Robert and Mayari Pritzker Penguin Cove we’ll have
nesting burrows a little different from those I saw in the wild. Tunnels
will connect the exhibit to a nest-box room where crates will serve as
burrows for the penguin pairs. I’m excited about the new exhibit and the
modern tools it will give us to care for and breed this endangered
species. I’m also hopeful that my experience at SANCCOB will be
beneficial to our penguin colony. If we’re lucky enough to have chicks,
I’m sure my newly acquired skills will be an asset.
A leatherback sea turtle esophagus is not the most inviting place.
