Impatient Penguins

Emperor penguins in Antarctica surround Paul Ponganis of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego as he removes a large cork emplaced over a study dive hole. The corks keep the holes from freezing over and keep the study penguins from diving before the researchers are ready to track them. At times, the penguins stand on the cork to protest as they await the opening of the hole.

Source: Live Science

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Jibbitz Penguin Shoe Charms

JIBBITZ are fun accessories for your Crocs shoes! These small shoe charms are a great way to customize your Crocs shoes. Simple and easy to install, just push through the holes on your favorite pair of Crocs shoes and get an instant new look. Made from sturdy rubberized plastic. Be sure to get plenty to mix and match.

$1.99 from Surf & Dirt

Penguin dreams

Mingle with penguins at Penguinarium

The Detroit Zoo’s Penguinarium, which opened in 1968, was the first facility in North America designed specifically for penguins.

The three species living at the Detroit Zoo include king, macaroni and rockhopper, all of which are sub-Antarctic species. These species require colder temperatures and, as a result, the Detroit Zoo maintains extensive life-support equipment for this facility.

The Detroit Zoo has a long history with penguins and has successfully raised many penguins of numerous species throughout the years. Recent focus has been on breeding macaroni penguins, a penguin species held at only a few zoos in North America. Thanks to the hard work of its animal care staff, the Detroit Zoo raised five macaroni chicks in 2007!

"They're very social," said Tom Schneider, curator of birds at the region's only zoo. "They form bonds. Then sometimes they have divorces, and they take up with someone else."

Schneider, of St. Clair Shores, oversees the penguins and every other bird exhibit at the zoo, a job he's held for 22 years. He learned early on that penguins have personalities, with some eager to form friendships and engage the public and others that keep their own counsel.

Rockhopper and macaroni penguins, especially, are friendly little guys who like to check out their visitors, Schneider said.

Penguins are so popular the zoo is raising funds by allowing groups of four animal lovers at a time to come into the Penguinarium after hours for "macaroni mingler" events. Groups pay $500 to spend time up close and personal with the soft, sea faring creatures.

Penguins have thrived in the Penguinarium since it opened; it now holds some of the oldest living penguins. In fact, King Penguin One, as he is known by zoo staff, is the oldest king penguin in the country.

Video: Baby Penguin at Brookfield Zoo

Caretakers at the Brookfield Zoo help take care of a baby Humboldt penguin that's having problems making its voice heard when it comes to mealtimes.

Watch video

The Penguin Butler

The penguin butler is made from resin mold and hand painted. You can use this cute little guy to hold drinks or party appetizers.

$99.99 at the Interior Gallery

Guinness Penguins

A new Guinness Draught commercial tells a tale of friendship through two penguins' tumultuous journey. The story follows the lives of two penguin friends as they battle for survival against their harsh environment including avalanches and a killer whale attack.

Meet Pete & Penny Penguin

Youngstown State University is the only four-year University or College in the United States with the nickname “Penguins”.

Pete and Penny Penguin are their beloved mascots and represent YSU and the Athletic Department at home and road games, community functions and special events throughout the region.


For a little insight into what wearing the suits is like, read Tales from inside the Pete and Penny suits.

Gentoo penguin with chicks

"Gentoo penguin with chicks" uploaded by jeroenf

Fears for St Kilda penguin colony

The Port of Melbourne Corporation's plan to monitor Phillip Island penguins rather than a colony at St Kilda, which is closer to bay dredging work, has outraged environmentalists.

Earthcare St Kilda, a voluntary group that has monitored the St Kilda penguins for 20 years, said the port authority was trying to hide any negative effects from the public.

It believes the St Kilda colony of 1200 penguins is most at risk from the dredging because its primary food source, anchovy, is likely to be decimated by work scheduled for the Yarra River mouth at the time they usually spawn.

"It may not wipe out the whole lot but it will take a long time for the colony to recover," Earthcare's co-ordinator of penguin research, Zoe Hogg, said.

Plumes from the dredging would force the penguins to forage further for food, which increased the risk of chicks starving to death in their nests, the group says.

Source: The Age

Photo: St. Kilda Penguins

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Penguin Limerick

A penguin, resplendent in tux,
Has homing skills just like a duck's.
To achieve the South Pole,
He just heads for his goal:
The Southern Cross tail, Acrux.

Source: The Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form

Note: Acrux is the brightest star in constellation Crux (the Southern Cross) and the thirteenth brightest star in the nighttime sky, at visual magnitude 0.77.

A Penguin Paradise, For Now

At 28 degrees, parts of the Antarctic ocean are so cold, only the salt keeps it from freezing. But that’s just the way Adelie penguins like it.

Biologist David Ainley has been studying Antarctic penguins for 12 years. He took CBS News correspondent John Blackstone to Cape Royds to show the unexpected impact of global warming.

So far, climate change has been good for the penguins of Cape Royds. Clearing ice has left plenty of open ocean for feeding. But the air is still frigid, averaging just 15 degrees in the summer.

“In the short term, Cape Royds is the place to be if you're a penguin,” says Ainley.

This year, 5,000 Adelie penguins converged at Royds to breed and raise their young.

For now, the complex interactions of a changing climate seem to favor this one small colony at Cape Royds. But this really is the end of the earth--as far south as penguins can go in search of the cold climate essential to their survival.

Source: CBS News

Humboldt Baby at Brookfield Zoo

This Humboldt penguin chick hatched Jan. 31 at Chicago's Brookfield Zoo.

The chick is now being fed by hand after not gaining enough weight naturally. Six times a day, the unnamed penguin swallows down a "shake" made of liquefied herring, cepelin fish, vitamins and Pedialyte -- the dehydration fluid familiar to most moms and dads.

The chick lives in a temperature-controlled brooder shared with plush penguins to minimize the chance of the chick becoming attached to humans.












Humboldt penguins ... did you know?

• Using their wings as flippers, Humboldts "fly" underwater, usually just below the surface, at speeds of up to 20 miles per hour. They steer with their feet and tail.

• A special gland allows them to drink salt water.

• Humboldts lay their eggs in layers of dried feces, or guano, left by seabirds.

• Once numbering in hundreds of thousands, their population is now estimated to be about 41,000. Guano harvesting -- it's used in fertilizer and gunpowder -- as well as overfishing and climate change has stressed the breed.

• They avoid over-heating by flushing pink on their face, wings and feet. This sheds body heat by sending blood to the bare part of their bodies.

• Humboldts live approximately 20 years in the wild and up to 30 years in zoos. They weigh about 10 pounds. The South American natives are found off the coasts of Peru and Chile.

Source: Chicago Sun-Times

Penguin Science

Like animals everywhere, Antarctic penguins are adjusting, or not, to changes in their habitat brought by warming temperatures. With extensive field research on their existing colonies, and a 30,000 year-old record contained in deposits of their bones, we know more about how Antarctic penguins will adjust to rapid climate change than almost any other creature on Earth.

David Ainley has been studying the Adelie penguin colony at Cape Royds for 12 years, spending much of the southern hemisphere summer in a tent. But Ainley has made it possible for millions of people to look in on the penguin colony here by a live camera feed to his web site www.penguinscience.com

King penguins could be wiped out by climate change

One of the emblems of the Antarctic, the king penguin, could be driven to extinction by climate change, a French study warns.

In a long-term investigation on the penguins' main breeding grounds, investigators found that a tiny warming of the Southern Ocean by the El Nino effect caused a massive fall in the birds' ability to survive.

If predictions by UN scientists of ever-higher temperatures in coming decades prove true, the species faces a major risk of being wiped out, they say.

The species is unusual in that it takes a whole year for all the birds to complete their breeding cycle -- the ritual of courtship, egg laying, incubating and chick rearing.

This extreme length, spanning the Antarctic winter and summer, means the birds are vulnerable to downturns in seasonal food resources for incubating their eggs and nurturing their chicks.

Their main diet, small fish and squid, depends on krill. These minute crustaceans are in turn extremely sensitive to temperature rise.

Source: The Times of India

Preserving penguin populations

Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic Encounter and Underwater World is a wonderland of snow, ice and amazing underwater sights in New Zealand. Here, you can explore the wilds of Antarctica and the natural treasures of the ocean depths in their Underwater World.

You can also visit Kelly’s Penguins which live in an environment that closely mimics their natural habitat, with fresh snow, real ice and freezing temperatures.

More importantly, Talrton's has been breeding penguins for nearly 12 years and has so far exported 110 of them to countries such as China, Spain, Taiwan and Japan. Tarlton's obtained its first 20 king penguins from Sea World, in San Antonio Texas in 1994, and its first 29 gentoo penguins from Edinburgh Zoo in Scotland a year later.

There is now a plan underway for Talrton's to export 77 more of its penguins, this time to a Melbourne aquarium. The proposal is to send 24 king penguins and 53 gentoo penguins to the Melbourne aquarium which plans to also breed the penguins for export, once its own pens have been stocked. It wants to have the first Antarctic display in Australia with penguins.

The Melbourne Aquarium plans to widen the genetic diversity of the New Zealand birds by importing fertile penguin eggs from the United States.

Penguin mascot in lawsuit

Channel 4's SnowBird has been notifying Tennessee and Kentucky children about school closings for over 25 years.

This penguin began his television career in the form of an inanimate, colorful cut-out that squawked out the phrase, "No school...no school!" From such humble beginnings, the bird took flight.

During his long career, SnowBird has appeared in a year-long "Word from SnowBird" public service series, starred in three Christmas specials, and hosted children's programs about sportsmanship and self-esteem. These efforts have earned the Bird numerous awards, including regional Emmy awards.

Not many penguins can boast of a past like that. But Channel 4's SnowBird refuses to rest on his reputation. As long as there are children and snowfalls, the future is bright for this bird.

But not if Paul Truitt of Hendersonville can help it.

He says that the ice cream truck-style jingle that accompanies promotional spots for WSMV-Channel 4’s mascot SnowBird, is a “cancer on my eardrum.”

Truitt has sued the television station after the penguin ditty became stuck in his head for more than a month, he says, resulting in the need for a doctor visit and a prescription for sleeping pills.

“They know that this song has the power to drive people to distraction, yet year after year, they broadcast it hundreds of times, especially targeting children,” Truitt says. “It just got to the point where it was driving me nuts. I was waking up in the morning with that squeaky little ding-dong tune going in my brain.”

A new baby in Connecticut

A baby penguin is the newest addition to the collection of fish and animals at the Mystic Aquarium & Institute for Exploration in Mystic, CT.

The aquarium announced that the chick was born Jan. 13. It is expected to go on display in the spring. Aquarium scientists will not know the sex of the chick until a blood test is done in a few months.

The aquarium is part of a cooperative breeding program for African black-footed penguins with other zoos and aquariums, known as the Species Survival Plan. The aquarium has seen more than a dozen chicks successfully hatched over the past 18 years.

African black-footed penguins lay two eggs, and both parents share in the responsibility of incubating them for 38 to 42 days. After they hatch, the parents feed regurgitated fish to the chicks.

Source

Magnatudes - Salvador Penguin

Magnatudes Salvador Penguin has magnets in his back, hands and feet to stick where you want. Salvador Penguin had the cutest yellow feet and a yellow beak to match!

$6.99 at Ty's Toy Box

Penguin Thermometer

There's a very good reason for all those baby items shaped like animals, as parents soon discover: your child is far more likely to submit to 'Mr Penguin' taking a quick look into their ear than to a scary-looking piece of adult equipment.

£23.99 at Bambino Direct

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Penguin Clip Watch

Keep track of the time at a glance with this penguin stainless steel, water-resistant quartz watch that has golden accents and a lobster clasp to attach to belt loop, purse, backpack or buttonhole. Penguin Clip Watch is 1 1/2".

$17.95 at Whales & Friends

Penguin Infobook

Sea World Infobook on Penguins is a great resource for penguin lovers, teachers and students. The website also includes a printable .PDF resource.

Penguin Perfume Bottle

Handmade Egyptian glass - This beautiful glass bottle is made in a way similar to the way it was made in ancient time which makes it a perfect collectable or gift.

$11.81 at Egypt 7000

Animal Bank

I love this translation:

In collaboration with the Japanese designer PUNTO IT, Ideaco have produced the Ceramic Penquin money box from the Animal Bank Series. Being colourful it is the saving box of the cute animal. The coins are inserted into the top of the penguin's head.

£ 20.00 at Paul Smith

Raku Penguin

One of a kind raku pottery. Black and white with orange throat & cheeks.

$60.00 at Grove Arcade

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)