Notes on Penguins

All 17 species of penguins live in the Southern Hemisphere (that's right, no penguins in the Arctic). They are water birds that can't fly. So in order to preserve the species they generally live on islands or remote regions that are free of predators. That way their inability to fly doesn't matter much.

 Magellanic penguins ( spheniscus magellanicus) are found on the Falkland Islands and along the coasts of Argentina and Chile. And that's just where we're going to visit them. The genus spheniscus (Magellanic and Humboldts) are temperate penguins. They have unfeathered fleshy areas on the face and distinct stripes across their chest.

Penguins are said to be among the most sociable of all birds. - We certainly hope so and will report on this aspect.

Penguins communicate by vocalizing and performing physical behaviors called displays. As we don't speak penguin we will just have to guess what they are trying to communicate. It is said that penguin calls are individually identifiable, allowing partners to recognize each other and also their chick. This is important since (as you can see in the background photo) members of a large colony of penguins are nearly indistinguishable on sight. I really can't imagine the poor chick having to find Mom and Dad by their individually identifiable calls in a colony where everyone is dressed the same and everyone is vocalizing, but it must work. The species has survived.

The average lifespan of a penguin is 15 to 20 years, although some live considerably longer. 

The popularity of "ecotourism" is increasing with cruise ships frequenting antarctic waters. Enthusiastic sightseers must be careful not to interfere with normal penguin activity by staying back and keeping noise levels down (MOller-Schwarze, 1984). We will try to keep our noise down.

Follow along with us as we set out to visit the penguins. We will be leaving home on Friday, February 25th, and setting sail from Buenos Aires on Sunday the 27th on the Celebrity Infinity. I'm sure we will know much more about these elegantly attired, non-flying, social sea birds when we reach Valparaiso, Chile two weeks later. I can hardly wait!!