Egg stealing gay penguins?

 

I’ve heard of gay penguins before, but I hadn’t heard of this. A couple of gay gentoos at Polar Land in Harbin, China, had attempted to snatch eggs from the feet of other penguins. Devious little guys, aren’t they? What’s more devious is that they would actually replace the egg with stones in hopes the parents would not notice. However, the other penguins in the zoo have indeed noticed and have ostricized the gay couple from their group.

Obviously the penguins have the desire to become fathers as nature has deemed, but wow, these little guys certainly aren’t being bird brains. I think I may have seen an episode of Law & Order about this, only with humans (and no rocks, maybe). Anyway, I find the switcheroo interesting since the chinstraps from the New York City Zoo (i.e. And Tango Makes Three) were trying to use stones to incubate. They were later given an egg from keepers to hatch and raise as their own.

The keepers of the zoo have fenced them off from the other penguins so their hatching season isn’t disturbed. I think that’s perfectly understandable, not cruel at all, though it’s sad for these male penguins.

[UPDATE: 12/16/08] The keepers at the zoo have given the penguins a pair of eggs from an inexerience first-time mother whose hatching ability wasn’t going so well. It turns out that they these male penguins are doing very well with their job. I know this would seem like stealing from the mother and giving the eggs to the other two because she’s not doing it right and that sounds like a  horrible thing to do. In a natural environment, yes, I agree that interfering with a situation like this should not be allowed. This zoo, however, is trying to successfully breed and I’m sure they are doing this for the good of their breeding program (which is why they fenced off the gay gentoos in the first place).

Lucky Penguin Escapes Orcas

This Gentoo was being chased by a couple of orcas. Luckily it managed to jump into this boat to hide out for a while. For the impatient, the penguin jumps in around 2:15. Cute little guy has no trouble hopping around the edge of the boat too. It’s also an interesting video where you can see the orca’s blowhole in operation. Well, enough about the orca. Look at that little penguin go!

ICHC: Feet not happy, just cold.

[via ICHC]

Penguin CD Storage Case

Now here’s CD case that I wouldn’t mind having!

The CD carrying bag is made with a cloth hand strip, easy to carry. It saves your storage space, can be numbered, holds CDs and liner notes in both sides easily. It can protect your CDs in good condition.

Description:

• Brand new Colorful Penguins Pattern CD Carrying Storage Case Bag Holder, never used before!
• Fashion sleek design with zipper, easy to insert and remove .
• The Penguins Pattern CD Holder  is made from durable fabric.
• Lovely Penguins Pattern set in the CD Carrying Bag looks quite fashionable .
• The CD Carrying Storage saves your storage space, can be numbered, holds CDs and liner notes in both sides easily
• Inner CD Case Holder protects CDs from dust, damp, scratches and corruption
• Colorful CD Case with a hand strip, easy to carry
• Ideally hold your CD of music disc, game disc, PC driver disc and so on!
• Max capacity: 80 Discs
• Size: 285*154*52mm

Weight: 180g

Source: SourcingMap

Penguins get back home to Patagonia

More than 370 penguins that mysteriously washed up on Brazil’s equatorial beaches were flown south on a huge air force cargo plane and released closer to the frigid waters they call home, animal advocates said Monday.

Onlookers cheered as the young Magellanic penguins were set free on a beach in southern Brazil and scampered into the ocean, the International Fund for Animal Welfare said in a statement. It called the penguin release the largest ever in South America.

The penguins were among nearly 1,000 that have washed up on Brazil’s northeastern coast in recent months, said group spokesman Chris Cutter. About 20 percent of the penguins died and the rest were not healthy enough send back.

The penguins, which had been kept at an animal rehabilitation center in the northeastern city of Salvador, were flown on an air force C130 turboprop plane usually used for heavy military cargo to southern Brazil and set free on Saturday.

Experts hope a small group of older penguins released along with the young ones will help guide them south to the Patagonia.

Magellanic penguins breed in large colonies in southern Argentina and Chile and migrate north as far as southwest Brazil between March and September.

Environmentalists say it is not know why the penguins were stranded so far north, but suggest they could have been carried beyond their usual range by a flow of warm water.

[via HappyNews]

Video found at IFAW’s Animal Rescue Blog. This is such an awesome video. Look at them go! Finally some good news this year for the Magellanics.

Why don’t penguins fly?

From Haiku Comic:

Why don’t penguins fly?
Because they can’t afford to
pay for plane tickets.

A good penguin joke.
Almost as good as the one
involving ice cream.

Big success for Little Penguin project

A project to protect Little Penguins nesting along the Derwent Estuary is having positive results.

Numbers of breeding pairs have increased significantly since the project began four years ago.

Over the years the Derwent Estuary’s little penguin population has declined rapidly because of attacks by dogs and cats.

They have also suffered from the development of sea walls along a number of beaches which have stopped them getting to nesting grounds.

But a project to protect the penguins is having success.

Conservationists from the Department of Primary Industries and Water have been installing artificial burrows to provide a safe environment and monitor breeding patterns.

Four years ago there were only 90 breeding pairs.

There are now 190.

[via abc.net.au]