A Penguin Christmas

Virginia DeBolt — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 07:12:46 -0600

Only in a Coke ad do you see a penguin at the North Pole among the polar bears. Penguins aren't associated with Christmas except in my beleaguered brain. They are cute, charming, and fascinating. Let's talk penguin.

In addition to being cute, penguins are remarkable birds. They can stay underwater several minutes. Some can dive as deep as 900 feet. They've managed to survive in some of the most inhospitable places on the planet. Even so, some are under threat from global warming, habitat loss, and pollution.

There are 17 species of penguins. The biggest is the emperor. An emperor penguin may be much as four feet tall. Emperors live in Antarctica and breed during the Antarctic winter. These hardy birds live somewhere between 20 and 40 years. They owe their charming good looks to a black head, chin, and throat with broad yellow ear patches on the sides of the head. This plentiful species is not in a threatened category.

On the other end of the penguin spectrum, you find the smallest species, the Fairy Penguin. Also called the Little Blue Penguin, this blue bird stands only about a foot tall. They hang out on the south coasts and islands of Australia and New Zealand, where they burrow into the hillsides. The burrow makes a snug home for the growing chicks. In the mornings, they emerge from their burrows and slide down the hill to spash into the water for a day's hunting. Fairy penguins live about 6 years and weigh in at about 2 pounds. They are not on the threatened species list. According to Wikipedia the penguin symbol used for the Linux operating system came to be because Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, was bitten by a Fairy Penguin while visiting Australia.

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Another record setting penguin is the Galapagos Penguin. This fellow sets a record for living the farthest north. The reason penguins are only found in the Southern Hemisphere is because they won't cross through the warm water around the equator. But the Galapagos Penguin lives near the equator. The Galapagos Islands are tempered by the cool waters of Humboldt Current. El Nino currents can affect the water temperature around the Galapagos Islands, and the population of Galapagos Penguins fluctuates with the water temperature. As you might guess, this makes them an endangered species. They reach about a foot and a half in height. Like the Fairy Penguin, they lay eggs in crevices and burrows.

King Penguins are a bit smaller than Emperor Penguins, standing about three feet tall, but they are often confused because of similar colorations. The king penguin has black throat with orange, tear-shaped ear patches. King Penguins live in the far northern reaches of Antarctica and at the southern end of South America and on numerous islands in the area. This lucky species is among the least threatened of the penguins. Their numbers are actually growing. This is a bit surprising, because they don't breed once a year like other penguins. They take about 14 to 16 months to get the chicks ready to go out on their own, which means the breeding cycle begins every other November or December.

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Along the Antarctic coast and nearby islands, you find the Adelie Penguin. Adelies are srtictly black and white, except for a bit of red in the bill, which is often hidden by feathers. They gather in huge colonies and are another species that is not threatened. Adelies average around a foot to a foot and a half in height and weigh around ten pounds. Because they dwell in such large colonies around the Antarctic coast, Adelies are the penguins many Antarctic tourists thrill to see splashing into the frigid waters and performing entertaining feats of diving. The white eye rings you see in this photo only appear during breeding season.

The Gentoo Penguin has a black head with white eyelids, and a distinct triangular white patch above each eye. Sometimes the white patch extends across the top of the head. The beak is orange. The main colony of Gentoo Penguins is on the Falkland Islands, but they also live on the islands nearer Antarctica. The numbers of Gentoo Penguins are declining and they are approaching a threatened category, but they aren't there yet, so conservation measures could easily turn the situation around fo the Gentoo. The adults may be close to three feet tall. A couple of unusual facts about Gentoos are that they lay two eggs a year, with the parents sharing the incubation duties.

The Chinstrip Penguin with its Van Dyke-like smile of black on the chin is charming. The charm pays off in numbers. This is most numerous of the penguins. There are estimated to be several million of them. You can find colonies along the coast of South Orkneys, South Shetlands and South Sandwich Islands, the Balleny Islands, and on the Antarctic Peninsula. LIke the closely related Gentoo, the Chinstraps lay two eggs a year. The Chinstrap stands about two feet tall and weighs about 10 pounds.

The crested penguins come in several varieties, but they all share a crest of feathers along the side of the head. They all have reddish-brown eyes and red or orange beaks. The Macaroni Penguin (top left in the photo) is where the "stuck a feather in his cap and called it Macaroni" lline in "Yankee Doodle" came from. Macaroni penguins live on the sub-Antarctic Islands of South Georgia, Crozet, Kerguelen, Heard & McDonald Islands, and small islands off the southern tips of South America and Africa. The Rockhopper Penguin (top right in the photo) are vulnerable species. A bit smallish at about seven pounds, the Rockhoppers dwells mostly on rocky islands. Is it too obvious to say that they like to hop from rock to rock? The Royal Penguin (lower left in the photo) breed only on Macquarie Island south of Australia and are a vulnerable species. The Royals like to nest where there is vegetation, as opposed to on rocks or in small caves. At about 2 and a half feet tall, the Royals are the tallest of the crested species. The Erect Crested Penguin (lower right in the photo) is an endangered species from New Zealand and nearby islands. They reach about 2 feet in height and weigh about 10 pounds. Although they nest in some of the same rocky places as Rockhoppers, they have been studied a lot less. Now that they are in the endangered category, there is more interest in learning about Erect Crested Penguins.

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Another endangered New Zealand species is the Yellow-Eyed Penguin. This yellow-eyed beauty is over 2 and a half feet tall and weighs in at about 14 pounds. With tiny numbers and a vanishing habitat (it favors forest and scrub), this is one of the most threatened penguins in the world. To make it even worse, a fatal disease swept through the colony in 2004 and killed over half of them. The New Zealanders have established a
Yellow Eyed Penguin Trust in a effort to reverse the situation for this bird.

The Humboldt Penguin hangs around slightly warmer areas such as the coast of Peru and Chile. They are closing in on three feet tall and weight a bit over ten pounds. The loss of a steady supply of dinner caused by over fishing has made this species vulnerable. They are also exploited for their guano, which is mined to use as fertilizer. Since the Humboldt lays its eggs in the shelter of a burrow in the guano, this contributes to their threatened state.

The Magellanic Penguin is also South American, living in coastal Argentina, Chile and the Falkland Islands. As tall as 30 inches, and weighing about 11 pounds, the largish Magellanic is not threatened yet, but is near that status. One of biggest threats to these penguins are oil spills off the coast of Venezuela. You can see that they are quite similar to their South American cousins, the Humboldt Penguins.

Additional Penguin Resources

- Renewable Energy in Antarctica: a Green Option for a White Continent
- Internation Penguin Conservation Work Group
- U of Wash. Penguin Studies
- Adopt a Penguin
- Penguin Cam

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A Penguin Christmas