Penguins wash up closer to equator in Brazil

Penguins from frigid waters near the bottom of the world are washing up closer to the equator than ever before. About 300 penguins have been found dead or alive in recent days along the coast of Bahia state, better known for sunbathers in bikinis than for seabirds native to Antarctica and Patagonia.

Biologists believe stronger-than-usual ocean currents have pulled the birds north. Others have suggested the increase might be due to overfishing near Patagonia and Antarctica that has forced the penguins to swim further in search of food.

Source: msnbc

A happy family

In this photo provided by the Wildlife Conservation Society, a couple of adult chinstrap penguins nuzzle as their chick sits in the rocks at the Central Park Zoo in New York, Monday, July 21, 2008. The zoo is currently home to three new penguin chicks which have hatched is in the past 20 days. Aside from the chinstrap chick shown in the photo, there are two new gentoo penguin chicks.
Photo credit: Suzanne Bolduc / AP Photo/WCS

Lost penguin visits Australia

Believed to have taken a wrong turn, this penguin was too exhausted to stand when he was found on the beach near the ferry dock about noon.

Helen Burrell, of Leopold Wildlife Shelter, said the penguin had most likely swam across the ocean from New Zealand and followed the Queenscliff ferry into shore.

"The only penguin breed on our shores are little blue or fairy penguins," she said.

"He's definitely not a fairy penguin, he's about five times bigger and has yellow Bob Hawke-style eyebrows. He must've gotten himself lost and just followed the ferry to shore."

Ms Burrell said the royal penguin stood about 60cm tall and weighed 25kg. She said the penguin was not injured but had severe dehydration when he was found. He was taken to Melbourne Zoo overnight to be officially identified and rehabilitated before he is released back into the ocean.

Source

Just chillin'

Staff at Edinburgh Zoo have set up sprinklers to keep these penguins under a constant 'rain' as they stand on nesting rings.

Surf's up, dudes!

Photo credit: Soluin Zonel / Nature's Best

Penguin's Revenge

Cute game - the penguins get to launch the yeti.

Play Penguin's Revenge

(via BBSpot)

Penguins trigger air-sea rescue

Rescuers hunting for the site of a plane crash at sea off the coast of Scotland called off their search - after the casualties turned out to be two inflatable penguins.

Coastguard and lifeboat teams, along with a helicopter, were scrambled after an elderly man reported a light plane had ditched near Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire.

He was convinced he saw wreckage glinting in the sun.

But rescuers discovered that what he had spotted were two massive balloons shaped like penguins.

The search was called off after the 4ft penguins, which were semi-inflated, were discovered .

The two penguins - whose source remains a mystery - have now been "adopted" by the lifeboat team.

Daily Record

Is mankind killing penguins washing ashore on Brazil's coast?

The discovery of hundreds of young penguins washing up along the Brazilian shoreline over the past month has sparked a scientific mystery over what may have led the birds thousands of miles astray.

The so-called Magellanic penguins began appearing in late June. Many of them dead or barely alive, they arrived on beaches all over southeastern Brazil about 2,500 miles from their native southern Patagonia.

Although the penguins regularly migrate up to southern Brazil in search of food, the sheer quantity of penguins washing up farther away than normal has prompted worries that human activity may be throwing off the animals' migratory cycle.

It appears the penguins are not finding fish where they normally do, and one reason could be that warming waters and climate change have impacted the fish population.

Some said a recent oil spill off the coast of Uruguay might have wiped out fish populations there, forcing the penguins to search farther north for food. Others suggested that melting ice in Antarctica had strengthened the northbound Malvinas ocean current this year, trapping younger, more vulnerable penguins.

The penguins that recover in Niteroi will be flown to Barcellos' museum, where they'll be released into the ocean. And from there, biologists hope, the penguins will find their way back into the migratory cycle that so many of them strayed from this year.

Source: Yahoo News

Football huddle?

Great advertising

San Francisco-based advertising agency BuderEngel (BE) has created a new campaign to showcase the renovation of, Splash Zone: Ocean Homes at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, one of the nations top attractions, it's all based around the tagline "Some Experiences Follow You Home".

(via Adland)

Dead Penguins Washing up in Brazil

Time reports more than 400 dead penguins, most of them young, have been washing up on Rio de Janeiro's tropical beaches.

While it's common for some birds to get swept up in fast-moving currents off Antarctica and Patagonia, a Brazilian environmental official says there have been more this year than at any time in recent memory.

Rescuers and those who treat penguins are offering several theories.

One veterinarian says overfishing is forcing the birds to swim farther out for food, where they're more likely to be sucked in by strong ocean currents in the Strait of Magellan. He says his zoo has already received about 100 penguins for treatment, and many of them were drenched in oil.

An environmental official says pollution is lowering the animals' immunity, leaving them vulnerable to funguses and bacteria that attack their lungs.

But a biologist says he doesn't believe pollution levels are high enough to affect the birds so quickly and suspects weather patterns could be at fault.

Are you lookin' at me?

Photo: Slow Loris

The easiest penguin cookies

You will need...
Some Oreos (1 per penguin cookie)
Some Hershey's Kisses (1 per penguin cookie)
A plate to put the cookies on

Instructions:
Split the oreo into two cookies
Move most of the icing onto one cookie
Break the other cookie into halves
Open a kiss and put it on the cookie with icing to make a head
Put both of the half cookies on the cookie with icing to make wings

found here

Join the gang

New England Aquarium penguin biologist Caitlin Hume introduces a Little Blue penguin, abandoned by its parents, into the penguin exhibit at the New England Aquarium in Boston, Mass., Wednesday morning, July 16, 2008. Hume, a penguin biologist at the aquarium, was involved in the hand feeding and home care of the young bird after the egg was left unattended by its parents earlier this year.

Photo: Stephan Savoia / AP

Source: Yahoo News

Fleeting fame for poor Percy

Poor Percy was found washed up near Wellington's Shelly Bay this month. His leg was tangled in a fishing line and broken.

Percy was nursed back to health with fresh salmon, daily massages, and even fixed up with a female.

But unfortunately, Percy died just hours after being picked as the mascot for a penguin rescue project.

The circulation to his foot could not be recovered despite the massaging and had to be amputated. He then lost condition and had to be euthanized.

(via Stuff)

Great advertising

San Francisco-based advertising agency BuderEngel (BE) has created a new campaign to showcase the renovation of, Splash Zone: Ocean Homes at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, one of the nations top attractions, it's all based around the tagline "Some Experiences Follow You Home".

(via Adland)

Penguin Pushpins

Penguins hold their feathers tightly against their bodies to keep warm, and fluff them out to cool off.

These miniature three-dimensional sculptures are perfect for posting notes, lists or photos.

Approximate Size - 1/2"

$12.95 - boxed set of eight at Jim Clift Design

Dinner!

AP Photo/Brian Witte

Snarl-free

Dog bite can't keep this penguin down

When he was found lying seriously injured on a beach, Collin from Collaroy was in such bad shape there was little hope he would survive.

The small penguin had deep wounds to his left eye, abdomen, groin and leg after being attacked by a dog.

But Collin has since made a remarkable recovery. "He's a little fighter, which is a good thing when you have such substantial injuries," Taronga wildlife hospital's general manager Libby Hall said.

"It would have been very painful. He's now standing up and eating quite well."

Since being admitted into intensive care, Collin's wounds have been cleaned and he has been placed on antibiotics, pain killers and anti-fungal medication.

Source: Daily Telegraph

Penguin Chicks Frozen by Global Warming?

This January—deep summer in Antarctica—explorer Jon Bowermaster suffered through a five-day stretch of torrential rains on the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula. The same cannot be said for thousands of downy penguin chicks.

Epic rains are unusual in Antarctica, even in summer, said Bowermaster, who had been in the region on an expedition funded in part by the National Geographic Society's Expeditions Council.

With daytime temperatures above freezing, the rains soaked young Adélie and gentoo penguins not yet equipped with water-repellent feathers. At night, when the mercury dipped below freezing, the wet chicks froze.

"Many, many, many of them—thousands of them—were dying," Bowermaster said.

The experience, he added, painted a clear and grim picture of the impact of global climate change.

"It's not just melting ice," he said. "It's actually killing these cute little birds that are so popular in the movies."

The freezing of chicks is just one example of how human activity is endangering about two thirds of all penguin species.

Source: National Geographic News

A penguin Birthday Party

The staff at Mystic Aquarium made a penguin "birthday cake" out of colorful jello molds, fish and squid to celebrate the gender identification of two male penguin chicks who were born in January. Penguin gender must be determined by a blood test that can't be administered until the chicks are 3 months old. The chicks and the rest of the adult colony shunned the cake in favor of fish.

Source: Hartford Courant

Bye, Bye

I'm outta here!

Penguin woes signal sea problems

The dwindling march of the penguins is signaling that the world's oceans are in trouble, scientists now say. Penguins may be the tuxedo-clad version of a canary in the coal mine, with generally ailing populations from a combination of global warming, ocean oil pollution, depleted fisheries, and tourism and development, according to a new scientific review paper.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature lists three penguin species as endangered, seven as vulnerable, which means they are "facing a high risk of extinction in the wild," and two more as "near threatened." About 15 years ago only five to seven penguin species were considered vulnerable, experts said.

And the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which has already listed one penguin species on its endangered list, is studying whether it needs to add 10 more.

Source: AP