The chicks are roaming about!

Can you just imagine? You're a new mom. Maybe you haven't been through this parenthood thing before. But even if you have, even instinct can't prepare you for your wayward chicks. And it's not just one chick, but two!!

Oh no. Not me. Not this penguin. I'm keeping my blonde self away from all of that. Hmm.. perhaps I will be adopted? Yes? No? okay.

Well, the point here is that moms and dads have a hard time from the get-go. First, it's getting them out of the egg. Then there are the terns and those nasty skuas. Nevermind that you, parent-person must stay alive in over to keep the chicks alive. That means watching out for Orcas and Leopard Seals. Euwwww.

Once the chicks reach a few weeks old, they're ready to get around and check things out--like they should be doing that. Of course, they're bigger and that means double duty on the food line because their appetites are bigger.

The following is with the permission of Hedwig Vanhaevre at http://www.pinguins.info/FRAMES/Algemeenframe_eng.html

Hedwig has the best penguin page out there and I highly recommend visiting it; all of his information is researched by himself and Prof. Culik (Was ist Was : Pinguine" and "Die Welt der Pinguine : Überlebenskünstler in Eis und Meer", both written by Prof. Boris Culik (the second together with Prof. Wilson), who gave Hedwig permission to translate and use it). As you can tell, this information is highly regarded:

What do penguins eat?

Principally they eat fish....

The three smaller species (Pygoscelis : adélie, gentoo and chinstrap penguins) mainly eat krill. Krill is the general term (originally Norwegian language) for several kind of small, plankton-like, lobster-like animals. These krill need phytoplankton as food. Krill is also the most important food-source in Antarctica, as whales and seals also eat it a lot. Krill live in large swarms (from a few m³ till a several km³) with about 1000 animals pro km³, or more than 1000 ton pro swarm.

Sometimes penguins also eat little stones to increase their digestion.

How do penguins digest their food?

Most of the species can take till ¼ of their body-weight in one meal. Their stomach starts direct under their neck and goes far down like a big sac. When you counted in, you know that ¼ is not the same as 1,5 times their weight. Penguins have a very fast digestion and can transform the content of their entire stomach in energy(fat-reserves) in less than 6 hours. For the chicks this would be catastrophic and therefore penguins are also able to stop the digestion and even after three days (adelie penguins) they can bring back fresh food in their crop to feed the chicks. How they manage to process this food to porridge and, despite of a stomach temperature of 39°C, it does not taint, is still unknown.

Many thanks to you Hedwig for allowing me to use your information and teachers-parents, be sure to send every one of your charges to Hedwig's page: www.pinguins.info


Note the size of these chicks! I have circled the ones that are out and about. How I do wish that I could see Fred and Ginger, but perhaps, in a few years, when they are old enough and they return here, I will see them again.










And that's it for this time. I'll be posting as news becomes available.

Sending best wishes to all~~~wiinterrr