Video: Fly Away Penguin

A young boy helps his penguin friend defy gravity.

They really like penguins

Some people like penguins so much they get penguin tattoos.

Penguin Nils Olav is a Colonel-in-Chief

Nils Olav is a King Penguin living in Edinburgh Zoo, Scotland. He is the mascot and Colonel-in-Chief of the Norwegian King's Guard.


When the Norwegian King's Guard visited Edinburgh Military Tattoo of 1961 for a Drill Display, a lieutenant called Nils Egelien became interested in Edinburgh Zoo's penguin colony. When the Guards once again returned to Edinburgh in 1972, he arranged for the unit to adopt a penguin. This penguin was named Nils Olav in honour of Nils Egelien, and King Olav V of Norway.

Wikipedia says: "Nils Olav was given the rank of visekorporal (lance corporal) and has been promoted each time the King's Guard has returned to the Tattoo.

In 1982 he was made corporal, and promoted to sergeant in 1987. Nils Olav died shortly after his promotion to sergeant, and his place of honor was taken by Nils Olav II, his two-year-old near-double.

He was promoted in 1993 to the rank of regimental sergeant major.

On August 18, 2005, he was promoted to Colonel-in-Chief. He is the first penguin to hold this rank in the Norwegian army. At the same time a four foot high bronze statue of Nils Olav was presented to Edinburgh Zoo. The statue's inscription recognises the King's Guard and the Military Tattoo. A statue also stands at the Royal Norwegian Guard compound at Huseby, Oslo."

There are more photos of Nils Olav at Amazing.

Passing Penguin

"Passing penguin" uploaded by afrikers

The Boulders is an amazing beach south of Simon’s Town where you can hang out with flippered friends in a secluded setting. The penguins stay mostly hidden except for an occasional dash between the boulders or a dip in the water.

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Penguin USB flash drive

Penguin USB flash drive 1GB
USB 2.0 Flash memory
Windows 2000/XP/Vista
Mac:OS9/10.0
41x31x20mm

$62.97 at Geekstuff4u

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Squishable Penguin

This penguin was not made for marching! This penguin was made for squishing!

15 squishy inches of perfect penguin, polyester fiber, ages 3 and up

$38.00

from: squishable

A Season at the Penguin Ranch in Antarctica

Excerpts from the journal of Paul Ponganis who has studied emperor penguins in the field for more than 20 years. He is both a medical doctor (anesthesiologist) and marine biologist and has combined these fields to pursue a lifelong fascination: oxygen regulation in mammals and birds.

Ponganis believes that by studying emperor penguin physiology, he can help doctors better understand hypoxia in human patients.

Photo Credit: Scripps Institution of Oceanography/UC San Diego
Source: Live Science

Ahoy there!

These Gentoo penguins seem to be greeting the Hanseatic cruise ship as she floats in Paradise Bay in Antarctica.

Source

Emu Egg Penguin

Sitting on a little iceberg that is covered with faux snow, this little penguin is waiting for his chance to waddle into your home. He is hand painted on an emu egg. Can you think of any better penguin gift for that special someone?

$35.00 at Egg Crazy

Counting Penguins

Bird keeper Darren Jordan, armed with a clipboard, checks on the 40 South African Black-Footed and four Rock Hopper penguins who make up the London zoo's penguin colony.

He was one of the many London Zoo staff carrying out its annual stock take of more than 600 different species, ranging from shrimpfish and giant anteaters to pygmy marmosets to gorillas.

It looks like the penguins were happy to help.



Source: Telegraph

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Penguin Awareness Day

Oh no, we missed it!

According to Penguin Geek and Cephalopodcast, January 20 was National Spheniscid Awareness Day (aka, Penguin Day.)

They've each listed a bunch of penguin related websites and activities for penguin aficionados.

Neither one of them mentioned our little humble weblog, Penguins!

Thanks a lot, guys!

Holiday Insights clarifies that while Penguin Awareness Day is always January 20

World Penguin Day is always April 25th.

Their research did not uncover any information about the origin of Penguin Awareness Day. They found no consensus on the date. Rather, they found several conflicting dates in January.

Video: Race between penguin and ostrich

Penguin earrings

at Etsy

Penguin Hand Towels

Lovely high-quality soft towels with darling penguins embroidered into the center. Choose your favorite color to match your bathroom, kitchen or anywhere else that needs a little fun accent!

$20.00 at Shana Logic

Studying Penguin Poop in Antarctica

Louise Emmerson has spent the past five years in a Hobart laboratory preoccupied with understanding the lives of Antarctic Adelie penguins. Her task in Antarctica is less appealing, she has come to collect their crap.

With Australian Antarctic Division project leader Simon Jarman and colleague Mike Double, she will spend the next two weeks living in a remote field hut, playing Pictionary by night, and venturing out into the frigid icescape each day to scrape penguin poo from the snow and rocks, photograph it, catalogue it, and deposit it in tubes to be shipped back to a Hobart laboratory. The DNA within the samples will be used to gain new insight into the Adelie's diet, foraging habits and breeding patterns.

That data will provide a window on the health of the Adelie community, and more broadly, a barometer on the Southern Ocean ecosystems on which it relies.

These birds are canaries in the coalmine in climate change terms. Any loss or movement in the krill and plankton and other creatures that nurture the Adelies and the rest of the marine population will rapidly be reflected in these rookeries.

Source: The Age

Newport Aquarium welcomes new penguins

The Newport Aquarium is proud to announce the hatching of two Gentoo penguin chicks. One chick hatched on Dec. 3, weighing 90 grams (just under 3.2 ounces).

The second chick hatched on Dec. 24 and was found on Christmas Day, weighing 163 grams (5.8 ounces). Currently, the chicks weigh 4,160 grams (about 9.2 pounds) and 1,660 grams (about 3.7 pounds), respectively.

In early 2007 the Aquarium welcomed a King Penguin chick, but these are the first Gentoo chicks since December 2005. There is also a possibility that several additional Gentoo eggs that may hatch in the weeks ahead.

Source: KY Post

Lightbulb penguin

Instructions at: About.com

Video: Little Penguin

Crochet a Baby Penguin Amigurumi

From Instructables, with instructions

March of the Penguin Appetizers

Found at Wifely Steps

Stewart Island penguins fighting to survive

Just six of 25 yellow-eyed penguin chicks hatched in monitored areas of Stewart Island had survived so far this summer, the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust said.

The island's penguin population faces an uncertain future after a devastating breeding season last summer in which all 33 chicks being monitored died. Breeding rates have been plummeting since monitoring began four years ago.

The chicks all appeared to be starving, and some had lesions in their mouths, which indicated the disease diphtheritic stomatitis - one of two diseases that killed chicks in the past.

Source

Penguin guard dogs win island reprieve

A WORLD-FIRST trial of guard dogs protecting penguins on Warrnambool's Middle Island will continue despite the dogs accidentally killing 10 birds.

A pair of Maremmas will be carried to the island for several hours' duty every day, supervised by a handler as they protect the island's threatened little penguin colony from foxes and trespassers.

The project had been scaled back last month, with the dogs removed from the island following their accidental killing of penguins.

Source

Smallest Penguins Parade in Good Years

Humans parade to mark special occasions, and now it's been determined that fairy penguins, also known as little penguins, parade during "good years," meaning years when food is plentiful, breeding rates are up and sea temperatures are stable.

A penguin parade consists of 5 to 10 individuals that walk together, nearly in sync, while arriving or leaving a colony.

Source

Wow -- A Tuxedo-less Penguin!

An individual Adélie penguin, Pygoscelis adeliae, that lacks all pigment was recently photographed by Australian biologists near Granholm Hut in Antarctica. Penguins and other birds that lack pigmentation are referred to as "leucistic" by ornithologists. These abnormal white birds rarely survive until adulthood because they attract predators and may not be able to find a mate. Amazingly and against all odds, the penguin that was photographed is an adult.

Image: Brett Jarrett (Mawsons Hut Foundation)