#Macaroni penguin endangered skin#

They are very sociable and live in large colonies of a few thousand and breeds mostly in the Bounty and Antipode Islands, you can also find them on the Auckland and Campbell Islands. They live in the Antarctic all year round and due to the harsh conditions only lay one egg and not two like all the other species.Įrect-Crested: They have very distinctive yellow feathers above their eyes and is the largest of the crested penguins. These penguins diet consists of krill and fish and they live on the open oceans of the Antarctic on Icebergs.Įmperor: This penguin has some orange on his cheeks and is the largest in the world, standing 4 feet tall and can weigh up to as much as 90 pounds. These penguins are named after the wife of a French explorer.Ĭhinstrap: They have a black band running under their chins, weigh about 10 ponds and can reach a height of two feet. They are the smallest penguins living in the Antarctic, weighing 8/9 pounds and stands about two feet tall. We have about 55 000 birds left and they are now part of our endangered species.Īdelie: Their entire heads are black and they have a white ring around their eyes.

#Macaroni penguin endangered skin#

They have pink patches of skin above their eyes and their chests are marked with a black band and spots. An Adult can weigh between 5-8 pounds and are 24-28 inches tall. These penguins you can find in the Southern African waters, on 24 Islands stretching between Namibia and Algoa Bay. Īfrican: Also known as the jackass penguin. They also rear nearly 2500 abandoned chicks a year. They used 7 000 tons of beach sand in the pens and 302 litres of detergent to wash the oil off the penguin’s feathers.Īt SANCCOB people can volunteer helping rehabilitate oceanic birds. We were part of a volunteer group of about 45 000 people, feeding 400 tons of fish to these penguins. Sadly, to say many did not make it but on a positive note it was a wonderful experience to witness their release after the rehabilitation process that took three months. I still have a few scars on my hands and upper leg as evidence to tell the story. We had to wear thick rubber gloves as these little cuties have very sharp and will bite anything in sight. After they were washed we had to give them pectrolytes via a tube we had to force down their throats which were followed by a fish or two. We went in every morning at 7am, washing the birds, scrubbing the oil off their feathers with a toothbrush. Over 20 000 birds were oiled and only about 2 thousand died after being taken in by SANCCOB and rehabilitated. The ship had 1,300 tons of fuel oil of which spilled into the ocean. At 21 I had the privilege to actually work with the African penguin, helping with their rehabilitation after a huge oil spill from the MV Apollo Sea sank near Cape Town in June 1994 which affected thousands of our birds on Robben and Dassen Island.

My fascination with penguins started as a little girl. Penguins can live up to 27 years in the wild and 30 years in captivity. The male and female takes turns to warm the eggs but for the Emperor penguin it is the male that stands for up to 9 weeks with the egg on his feet going without food for this entire period. The king and emperor are the only penguins which lay only one egg as the rest lays two. The eggs incubate between a month and 66 days all depending on the species. Their diet manly consists of fish, krill and squid. Penguins spend 75% of their life in water, hunting for food. Their tuxedos are like camouflage in the water to keep them safe. You can find them at the coasts of Africa, Australian, Galapagos Islands, New Zealand and South America. There are 17 species and they all live in the Southern hemisphere. Who do not like these cute little chaps in their tuxedos?