Skip to main content

Update from a penguin called Promises in South America

>
> Dear PenguinPromises
>
> The penguins have been doing really well since I wrote to you last. The weather
> has been very mixed, with some really hot days, and some cold windy days. The
> temperature reached 26°C (79°F) just a few days ago, which is very hot for southern
> Patagonia.
>
> Thankfully we have not had much rain in the colony, so that has been good news
> for the chicks. Despite being penguins, the chicks do not like getting wet. They
> do not have the waterproof feathers of Promises when they are small. The fluffy
> feathers keep the chicks warm when they are dry, but are like a woolly sweater,
> and do not help in the rain at all.
>
> It is up to Promises to keep the chicks safe and dry during rain when they are
> little, but the chicks are now big enough that rain no longer bothers them. They
> are now big enough to leave the nest and explore their surroundings. I attach
> a photo of your chicks doing just that.
>
> When the chicks are newly hatched, they do not have the ability to create enough
> internal warmth. Just like human babies, they rely on the parents to keep them
> warm.
>
> As the chicks grow, in addition to increasing in size, they also go through a
> number of internal changes, one of which is the growth of special cells that
> convert food into heat. Those special cells are like microscopic heaters distributed
> throughout the body.
>
> All warm-blooded animals develop these cells in order to generate their own body
> heat, which is the definition of being warm-blooded. By comparison, cold-blooded
> animals such as snakes and insects have no internal heating, and rely on the
> surrounding temperature.
>
> The ability to produce their own body heat allows the chicks to now shed their
> fluffy chick feathers and replace them with waterproof feathers. They cannot
> go out to sea until that process is complete. That process has already begun
> and will take at least another month to complete.
>
> Since they hatched, the chicks have been healthy and are growing very quickly.
>
> This year has been an excellent year for the penguins. I attach a photo of the
> colony and you can see that there are large healthy chicks everywhere. Most of
> the penguins you can see are chicks. There are only a few adults around during
> the day.
>
> Up until recently each penguin couple has been taking turns at going to sea to
> catch food for the chicks. One of the couple stays at home in the nest with the
> chicks, to keep them safe, and the other goes to sea to catch fish. Then the
> next day they swap over.
>
> By taking turns, both penguins get one day out at sea to catch food, and one
> day back home in the nest with the chicks. Up until recently that strategy worked
> very well, but now it has changed. The chicks are eating too much, and the parents
> cannot catch enough fish to keep them fed working alternate days.
>
> It has reached the point where one penguin cannot catch enough food to keep the
> chicks fed. So the penguins have been forced to give up working in shifts. Both
> parents are now leaving the colony to catch food each day. With both parents
> now going fishing, they can catch twice as much fish for the chicks.
>
> Of course, leaving the chicks on their own during the day is risky, and is not
> something that Promises would do by choice. However the chicks must get more
> food in order to survive, and there is no other way of getting more food for
> them. Every penguin in the colony has made this change in order to keep their
> growing chicks fed.
>
> The chicks don't like being left on their own either. The parents have always
> been by their side since they hatched. The chicks have never been left alone
> for a single minute up to now, so this is a scary time for them.
>
> Now when the chicks are left alone during the day they mix with other chicks
> in small groups, to play together, and for safety. The chicks feel safer when
> they are together in a group with other chicks. As you can see in the photo,
> there are small groups of chicks throughout the colony.
>
> During the day there are now just a few adult penguins in the colony. At this
> time of year dawn comes early in the morning, at 05.00 hrs, so that is when the
> day starts for Promises. The penguins' food is all out at sea, so there is no
> point wasting time on breakfast when there isn't any.
>
> The penguins just wake up and head straight off to work. They don't need to get
> dressed, or brush their teeth. They are already fully dressed, and birds do not
> have teeth.
>
> It takes about 20 minutes for Promises to walk down to the beach, and then another
> 2 hours to swim out to where the fish live. Some days the penguins find the fish
> quite quickly, and some days it takes a long time to find them.
>
> The problem is that the fish do not stay in the same place. It would be a lot
> easier for Promises if they did. The fish move around to different places each
> day, following blooms of plankton and invertebrates which are what the fish feed
> on.
>
> So every day the penguins have to look for the fish shoals again. Once they find
> the fish, then they have to start catching them.
>
> The penguins begin by taking a deep gulp of air before diving under the water.
> Penguins are birds, so Promises must breathe air like all birds do. The fish
> can stay under the water all the time, but penguins have to come back up to the
> surface every few minutes to take a breath of air.
>
> As a general rule amongst aquatic birds and mammals, the larger an animal is
> the longer it can remain underwater without air. Whales can remain underwater
> for an hour or two, but Magellanic penguins can only last about 3 minutes when
> hunting and burning up energy. So their hunting dives have to be short and precise.
>
> The penguins dive straight down to about 30 or 40 meters (100 to 130 ft) below
> the surface, which is a long way underwater considering that they only have 3
> minutes. That is approximately a ten storey building downwards below the water.
> The penguins then stop for a few seconds to look upwards at the fish above, and
> decide which fish they should try to catch. They only have time for one attempt.
>
> Looking upwards from that depth, Promises can see the fish easily, but the fish
> can't see Promises. The fish are highlighted against the bright sky above, making
> them easy to see, whilst the penguin's black feathers are difficult to see against
> the gloomy depths below. The penguin chooses a fish to catch, and then starts
> swimming upwards as fast as possible to catch it.
>
> Most of the time the fish do not see the penguin coming at all. The penguins
> take them by surprise coming up from below out of the gloom at high speed. The
> head, back, and all of the penguin's upper parts are all black, so the penguins
> cannot be easily seen coming up out of the gloomy ocean depths.
>
> That is why most seabirds are black above and white below when they have their
> wings or flippers outstretched. That combination makes them hard to see from
> above against the dark ocean below, and also hard to see from underneath against
> the light coming from above.
>
> Birds on land have so many different colours/colors, but seabirds are usually
> variations of black and white, and that is why. A universal colour-scheme for
> land birds would not work, because the land can be so many different colours,
> but the deep ocean is always dark.
>
> The penguins come up fast and bite the fish to catch it. The hook on the upper
> tip of the beak pierces the fish and stops the fish from slipping out of the
> beak during the impact. Compared to other penguins, Magellanic penguins go for
> larger fish and attack quickly by surprise. That hook is vital to their success.
>
> If that hook did not pierce the fish, the high-speed attack of the Magellanic
> penguin would likely cause the slippery fish to slip out of the beak during the
> impact. Even a dead fish is difficult to grab with chopsticks underwater at high-speed.
> If the fish did slip out of the beak, the penguin would not have time to turn
> around and dive back down to retrieve it. By now the 3 minutes are up so there
> is only time for one attempt.
>
> I attach a close-up photo of the beak so that you can see the downward pointing
> hook more clearly. The lower bill is slightly shorter to accommodate the hook,
> which is almost invisible with the beak closed. As I mentioned last month, that
> beak also keeps Magellanic penguins safe from predators on land.
>
> Many species of penguin lack this hook, and those species generally catch smaller
> fish and invertebrates, or catch their fish in a different manner.
>
> Having caught the fish securely, the penguin continues up to the surface where
> it then swallows the fish whole, head first. Penguins do not chew their food.
> Penguins are birds, and birds do not have teeth, so they swallow their food whole.
> Playing with their food would also invite the ever present seagulls to steal
> their meal, so the quicker their prize is safely swallowed the better.
>
> Each penguin begins by eating enough fish for itself. That food is quickly digested.
> Once they have eaten enough food for their own needs, the penguins then start
> catching fish to take back home to the chicks.
>
> The fish for the chicks is taken back home to the nest in their stomach too.
> Many birds have what is called a crop, which is a special pouch in the throat
> that birds use for storing food for their chicks. Penguins do not have a crop.
>
> Instead the fish for the chicks is swallowed and passes directly into the stomach,
> but the penguins turn off their digestion so that the fish for the chicks is
> kept in their stomach without being digested. The seawater that is swallowed
> with each fish dilutes any remaining stomach acid and stops digestion until new
> acid is produced after the chicks have been fed.
>
> The penguins can even prepare different recipes for the chicks. When the chicks
> are very small, the adults mash the food up in their stomach prior to feeding
> it to the chicks, so that it is mushy and easy to swallow. Tiny chicks would
> choke on large pieces of fish.
>
> Then as the chicks get bigger Promises can change the recipe, so that the fish
> is not mashed up so much. The chicks slowly learn to eat larger pieces of fish,
> instead of mushy fish.
>
> When the penguins have caught so much fish that their stomachs will not hold
> any more, they head back home to the nest. It takes another two hours to reach
> the colony, and then another 20 minutes walking back to the nest. By now the
> chicks are waiting for Promises with rumbling tummies. They are very hungry because
> they have not had any food since the day before.
>
> After the chicks have eaten all the food they can manage, they usually fall asleep.
> The parents then spend time preening the chicks. If the chicks have not already
> fallen asleep, then having their feathers preened by Promises is sure to send
> them to sleep.
>
> Preening the chicks' plumage is very important. Here in the penguin colony there
> are lots of parasites, such as fleas and ticks. Those parasites suck the chicks'
> blood, and often carry diseases.
>
> In order to keep the chicks healthy, it is important for Promises to spend family
> time with the chicks at the end of each day. The parents run their beaks through
> the chicks' feathers, removing all the fleas and ticks that they can find. If
> the chicks were not preened daily they could become sick from the parasites which
> the chicks can't remove by themselves.
>
> Penguins do not have any hands, so there are areas that penguins cannot reach
> by themselves. They cannot reach their head and neck for example, and that is
> where the parasites collect in large numbers if they are not removed by another
> penguin.
>
> As well as preening the chicks, the couples also preen each other to remove the
> parasites from those areas that they cannot reach themselves. In addition to
> being an important part of keeping clean and healthy, this time together also
> helps the penguins to strengthen their relationship as a couple.
>
> For the next few weeks, the daily routine for Promises will be getting up at
> 5 o'clock in the morning, spending the whole day fishing, coming back home to
> feed the chicks, and finally spending family time with the chicks before bed.
>
> During that time the chicks will shed their fluffy chick feathers, and grow waterproof
> feathers, ready to leave the colony and set off on their own as juveniles. I
> will write to you again in another 5 or 6 weeks with all the details of that.
>
> Kind regards, Mike
>
>
>

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What is success?

Success is not giving a hoot.  If you can be a 45 year old cat woman playing in front of 3000 people, totally uninhibited, then you are succeeding.  Because if you are able to do that, you are in the present moment, not caring about what anybody else thinks.  Not worried about their judgements or how you think you should be coming across.  (ok, so I was a little worried, so not 100% successful, but I continue to strive to be free of this nonsence) When you have that presence of mind in front of animals, that is when you are succeeding. 

Overwhelmed

Sometimes I spend time with people who see others in a different way to me. I am left feeling insecure in my intuition. Some believe that human beings are inherently bad. I prefer to see them as inherently good. With regard to people in relationship with animals, any poor relations, I see as misunderstandings or confused belief systems. I need to be able to trust my take on people. Because if I don't, there is no hope. If we don't inherently care, if we don't have that foundation to which we can return once we put our ego and greed aside, then there is no hope. People governed by their egos do three things when faced by challenges - 1. Keep doing the sam and expect a different result. 2. Dig in their heels and force the issue. 3. Give up and walk away with an excuse. All points refuse to acknowledge a problem which can be solved because it is a problem of our own making. So, when I look around and see litter, pollution, unethical care of humans and animals, corrupti...

A Lesson in Surrender

  I always found the concept of surrender a cop out.  Something one would do if one was too weak to take on a situation.   So, when I found myself in a situation where I am unable to follow my passion in the most effective manner, I experienced great discomfort.  Speaking up was immediately taken as judgement.  Even though it was never intended as that.  The presumed judgement resulted in defence.  And the drama began, and unfolded.   Chasms and vindication ruled.  Frustration and finger pointing. What has this to do with animals?   For those of us that work with animals, they are like kids.  They sense how we feel.  Our moods affect them.  So, when this type of angst environment is created, the disturbance affects the creatures that we love. The lesson – stop the angst.  It is not worth upsetting the animals.  Nothing is.  So, surrender.  Not sure where this will go.  But I am here righ...