Penguin Power

I knew penguins were cute, but never realized how interesting they could be. I loved watching them, tried to get many of their behaviors on film. Once I figure out how to use iMovie, I'll post little video clips. Here are some of the fun/cute penguin pictures from the MANY I took:

Chinstrap penguins -- it's pretty obvious how they got their name. We came across them on our first landing, at Half Moon Bay in the South Shetland Islands. Totally unafraid of us, they mingled with our group with ease.


Gentoo Penguins -- these little guys abound, we ran into them at several places along the Antarctic Peninsula (Neko Harbor, Paradise Bay, and Port Lockroy). Babies of various ages were plentiful. The pink coloration you see in most of these pictures - guano. The color comes from eating krill, and since penguins don't have a sense of smell, they don't seem to mind the fact that it's all over them, their nests, etc.


Adelie Penguins -- we ran into these little fellas at Peterman Island. Apparently there are over 9 million breeding pairs of Adelies in Antarctica. These two pictures are from Nathalie Michel.


Guano Scale -- our various stops fell along a "guano scale", with some ranking quite high. The first little guy below was apparently used for target practice, the second fellow apparently didn't eat any krill, and the final shot of gentoo colonies around a whale skeleton clearly had plenty o' krill on the menu.