More random thoughts about bartending
11 years ago
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Biting the (Penguin) Hand that Feeds You
A nuisance? We were among dozens of tourists from all over the world walking toward the Boulders in Simon’s Town to see–the Boulder Colony of African Penguins.
The Simon’s Town local is certainly entitled to his opinion, but as he told us, “If you come to look at them once in your life, they’re cute. But if you live here, they’re noisy, stinky pests,” he was standing in front of a gelato cone stand (single scoop 20 Rand, double 25) located in what looked to be his backyard.
Now it’s possible he and his wife could sell a cone or two without these “pests,” but it’s doubtful. All day long, visitors walk down the residential street to The Boulders to see the cute little penguins.
The penguins make enough noise to be also known as Jackass Penguins, but anyone making a few rand from people going to see them, shouldn’t resent the cute little birds. After all, no one is walking down that street to see he and his wife.
However, the guy reminded me of Las Vegas locals who constantly complain about the tourists who come to Sin City, spend their money, and drive the economy. During the Comdex convention, Las Vegas locals complain about computer geeks. During the National Finals Rodeo, the cowboys are ridiculed by locals. And so on.
Perhaps the cone curmudgeon honestly believes that it’s the quality of his gelato that is driving his traffic, but it’s not. He had the entrepreneurial chutzpah to recognize the needs of customers walking by his house. He should remember what brings the customers to him.
source
Penguin on the Lam: Tuxedoed Fugitive Escapes from Tokyo Zoo
The penguin’s jailbreak was a success at first, until a director of a neighboring zoo spotted the runaway floating down the Old Edogawa River. The official emailed photographic proof to the keepers at Tokyo Sea Life Park, who quickly realized they were missing one of their 135 penguins.
They know the two-foot-tall bird didn’t fly out of there, but the details surrounding the penguin’s escape are fuzzy. It’s likely that it scaled a rock wall more than twice its size. “Sometimes wildlife have an ‘explosive’ power when frightened by something. Maybe it ran up the rock after being surprised,” zoo official Takashi Sugino told the AFP. Or maybe it simply thought the fish would be tastier on the other side?
Regardless, the penguin on the lam has spurred a hunt so large that the zoo is now appealing for the public’s help in tracking down the bird, though they caution against attempting to wrangle it. “We apologize for causing trouble to local residents. Although the penguin will unlikely harm human beings, please contact our aquarium if you spot it, without trying to capture or chase it,” a notice posted at the zoo read.
After all, the penguin might be rather slippery. “It’s a bit of a struggle to catch it when it is swimming, because it swims at a tremendous speed,” Sugino said. Instead, they are appealing for a different tactic. “We are hoping to catch it when it climbs up on land to sleep.” Here’s hoping it doesn’t get lost and end up on another continent like the last escaped penguin.
source
Monday, March 5, 2012
Grim reaper cuts swathes through the Little Penguins of Perth
Penguin Island, 50 kilometres south of Perth and just 600 metres offshore from a rapidly growing urban area, is home for a very special colony of Little Penguins, which are the smallest of the penguins with an average height of 33 centimetres. Penguin island is not only the largest colony in Western Australia, but it also has the highest conservation status of all major colonies in Australia. In addition, there are no Little Penguin colonies further west in the world.
In the Perth region, a smaller colony is also found on Garden Island, just seven kilometres north. It lies at the western edge of Cockburn Sound, the busiest bay in Western Australia. The two colonies together are regarded as one “metapopulation”.
This metapopulation of Little Penguins is the most northern in WA. It is facing an increasing range of natural, anthropogenic and climate-change threats.
From August-December 2011, the number of penguins found dead increased four-fold. Forty-nine penguin corpses were found on the foreshore between Safety Bay and the mouth of the Donnelly River, some 400 kilometres around the coast from Penguin Island, as well as on Penguin Island. The penguins were mostly banded or microchipped, so I know that most of them came from Penguin Island.
View Larger Map
This “marine heat wave”, as it has been labelled by the Department of Fisheries, is suspected of causing a decline in stocks of fish that the Little Penguins rely on for food. Indeed, sandy sprat, usually their major prey item while raising chicks, were not found in the penguins’ diet in 2011. The species of fish the penguins were feeding on was determined by analysing the DNA in their faeces.
The penguins also had the worst breeding season since monitoring of this colony began in 1986, with many fewer penguins even attempting to breed. The penguins must remain close to the colony while raising chicks, so they can return each night or two to feed them, so it is likely that the nearby fish resources were much less abundant than normal.
If this wasn’t bad enough, the lack of fish has most likely contributed to more penguins being found dead during their annual two-week moult. Penguins cannot go to sea and catch fish while they are moulting, so they must build up enough fat and protein before moulting to “feed” this very energetically demanding process of making new feathers. If the fish are less abundant, and the penguins have to travel further to catch them, then they can’t build up enough reserves to last the fasting stage of moult.
A boat ramp has recently been constructed seven kilometres south of the colony. We don’t yet know if a potential increase in watercraft used in the area has caused this increase in deaths from injuries. The penguins could be weaker due to starvation and unable to get out of the way of the watercraft, or it could be a combination of both. We need to know more about the seasonality of dead penguins, where they are found and their causes of death, to know what effect the boat ramp is having.
Perth has just experienced its hottest summer on record. This also contributed to a number of deaths, particularly in moulting penguins. They are unable to leave the island until their new feathers have become waterproof, so some penguins died from overheating.
It was probably lucky that there were very few chicks that hatched this year. Otherwise they could have died from overheating too, as I have witnessed in past years. The predictions for the changes associated with climate change – warming temperatures and less rain in the south-west of Australia – do not bode well for this colony of penguins.
It’s hard to know how the mortality and low breeding observed in 2011 will affect the overall survival of the colony. Certainly, a population estimate I undertook in 2011 showed that there were fewer adults on the island compared to the estimate of 2369 penguins in 2007. However, this is likely to be an indication that there were fewer penguins breeding, as was certainly identified from the monitoring of nest sites.
Seabirds are long lived, the adults usually have a high survival rate, and young penguins don’t join the breeding population until they are two to three years old. Therefore, marked changes in the population are likely to occur over the macro-scale.
However, it is likely that the survival rate of the adults in 2011 was much lower than normal. Also, very few chicks were raised, and those that did leave the nest would have a slim chance of surviving if fish weren’t available close by.
It is likely that we will see a real decline in the population over a shorter time scale, especially if La Nina conditions continue.
But all is not lost for the Perth penguins; not yet, anyway. The colony on Garden Island did not appear to fare so badly. Their breeding participation and success was much better than that at Penguin Island – it usually is. This is probably because they feed in Cockburn Sound: just a short trip out the back door for these penguins. And for whatever reasons still to be identified, the fish stocks the penguins feed on in Cockburn Sound were apparently not affected by these high sea temperatures.
These penguins also nest in lovely cool limestone, unlike the penguins on Penguin Island who nest under bushes or in nesting boxes. So they are unlikely to be affected to the same extent by high air temperatures.
So this colony of penguins might be the saviour for penguin presence in Perth if we are unable to manage all the threats the penguins on Penguin Island are exposed to. We just need to maintain all the things that are responsible for them doing so well. We just don’t know what all of those are yet!
Watch a video about the Little Penguins.
Murdoch University is a Member of The Conversation.
Our goal is to ensure the content is not compromised in any way.
We therefore ask all authors to disclose any potential conflicts
of interest before publication.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Edinburgh Zoo’s penguin pen shut for maintenance
Edinburgh Zoo has been forced to call off its penguin parade. Picture: Ian GeorgesonThe work will mean that the penguin colony is split up today. The relocation process will take up to two weeks, with a third of the penguins remaining at Edinburgh Zoo and others sent to zoos in Belfast, Gloucestershire, and Odense, Denmark. Some will never return.
Zoo officials said the first stage of repairs would involve allowing the outdoor penguin pool to drain naturally, which will take around five weeks, followed by an assessment by a team of engineers. The enclosure is expected to reopen in the summer.
Hugh Roberts, chief executive of the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, the charity which owns and manages Edinburgh Zoo, said: “The existing pool has served our large colony of kings, gentoos and rockhoppers extremely well for 20 years, and to ensure it continues to do so in the future, we need to carry out maintenance work.”
Meanwhile, Edinburgh Zoo’s giant panda pair, Tian Tian and Yang Guang, are ready to welcome their 100,000th visitor today, less than four months after arriving from China.
The visitor will receive membership to Edinburgh Zoo.
source
Friday, March 2, 2012
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
