World Penguin Day
Credit: Russ Osborne at flickr
On the 25th of April every year, the Adelie penguins in the Antarctic begin their annual northward migration. The Adelies start migrating in the Antarctic fall season and won’t return to their colonies until the following spring. In true synchronized fashion, the Adelies dive into the frigid waters answering their Nature’s call to migrate.
They will swim north for only a few hundred miles (around 600km) and stay among icebergs that are floating about, feasting on krill and other penguin delicacies.
So really, these penguins don’t actually go anywhere when they migrate. They’ll bob around in the ocean and rest on the ice until it’s time to head back home to Antarctica.
Actually, the reason they do this is because the days in Antarctica are becoming darker during this time of year. Adelies do not see too well in the dark so they migrate north so they can hunt for food, otherwise they would starve.
Have a wonderful Penguin Day and try to do something penguinish, whether it be reading more about them, go to the zoo or aquarium, or maybe buying up hordes of penguin merchandise.
Festo’s AquaPenguins
German robotic company Festo has engineered the AquaPenguin, a bionic life-size penguin that can swim and move underwater seemingly as graceful as their real life counter parts. The design and engineering involved with these robotic penguins are just incredible as they are able to twist and turn in small spaces. They also carry 3D sonar that allows them to communicate with other aqua penguins as well as swim autonomously around their environment. Check out the video below from Festo’s promotional material. Truly an awe-inspiring accomplishment in robotics!
Unusual Penguins Found
Film maker and writer Terry Jones discovers a colony of penguins, which are unlike any other penguins in the world.
North & South released from Taronga Zoo
Two little penguins that received care at the wildlife hospital at Australia’s Taronga Zoo were released recently. North (above) and South, as veterinary nurses dubbed them, were found on beaches near Sydney and brought to Taronga for treatment.
Taronga spokeswoman Danielle McGill said it wasn’t unusual for the zoo to take in stray penguins during the birds’ molting season, when they lose their feathers — and their waterproofness. “They can’t go in the water at that time,” McGill told the Sydney Morning Herald. “They have to find somewhere around the beach that is relatively quiet, where there are not a lot of people or dogs. As you can imagine, around the Sydney area that is a pretty rare find.”
The zoo generally takes in more than 30 penguins each year during molting season.
[via The Daily Irrelevant]
Mystery deaths strike zoo’s penguin colony
Auckland Zoo is down to one blue penguin after a series of deaths that has baffled keepers.
Four of the zoo’s six penguins have died of a mysterious ailment in the past six months.
A fifth penguin drowned in a bucket while trying to escape from an emergency enclosure keepers made to keep it safe.
Zoo veterinarian John Potter said the zoo would like more penguins to replace Ani, Henry, Lucy, Pluto and MacGonagal.
The last penguin, Coral, was lonely, and the enclosure would be improved in an effort to make her and her new companions more comfortable.
But he said staff were “stumped” about what had happened to the other penguins. Tests of their swimming water had not found any possible cause of the problem.
The trouble started in April when keepers noticed the penguins had unusually oily coats and did not seem to want to swim.
Too much oil makes penguins’ coats absorb water and they can risk freezing to death.
It is not known if they were staying out of the water because of the oil in their coats or because there was something wrong with the water in their enclosure.
Over the next six months, the penguins were hand-fed and washed to try to encourage them back in the water. But four died, each of a different ailment.
“We tend to think it was probably because the immune systems of these birds were affected,” said Mr Potter.The birds had been in the same enclosure since 2002 with no problems – it was possible there had been a problem with the water that only birds could identify.
In December, puzzled keepers moved the last two penguins to a small enclosure so they could to keep a closer watch on them.
It was there that the fifth penguin drowned, after it fell into a bucket of water that had been used to prop up its enclosure during an escape attempt.
“It was just one of those things you wouldn’t think about in advance – a penguin drowning,” said Mr Potter.
Blue penguins are not endangered in the wild and Mr Potter said the zoo hoped to get more from animal rescue centres once the enclosure had been upgraded.
They would be birds that had suffered an injury that restricted their ability to feed in the wild.
[via New Zealand Herald]
Penguin Geek 