Cl@ssmate 35 - News.com.au
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Cl@ssmate 35 - News.com.au
Series 11 Emperor penguins dive under water thetelegraph.com.au/classmate Standing about 1m and weighing as much as 40kg, these are the biggest species of penguin. The scientific name Aptenodytes means “unwinged diver” and forsteri is after the naturalist Johann Forster, who travelled with Captain James Cook and was one of the first to describe the penguins. Emperors have an amazing breeding process. Colonies walk in lines over a distance of about 200km to reach the same area of an ice shelf in Antarctica. They select a mate, copulate and the female lays an egg six weeks later. She passes the egg to the male in a way that prevents it freezing. The male holds the egg on top of his feet against some bare skin known as the brooding patch. Females then walk to the ocean to feed while the males huddle together during the extreme cold and darkness of winter waiting for the egg to hatch. After the chick emerges the mother returns, finding its mate with distinctive sounds. The chick is then passed to the mother, who feeds it by regurgitating (vomiting) food directly into its mouth. The father, who has gone 15 weeks without food, heads to sea to feed. The parents then take it in turns to look after the chick until it can swim and feed on its own. A Emperor penguin Baby emperor penguins frolic on the ice There are 18 species of penguins, although there is still some debate about subspecies, so the number may be as high as 20. A penguin is a flightless bird belonging to the family spheniscidae. They are exclusive to the southern hemisphere, living between latitudes 45 and 60 degrees south. They all have small, flipper-like wings that are used for swimming and are well adapted to life in extremely cold weather. Many have distinctive black and white feathers that are often compared to a man’s formal dinner suit or tuxedo, although some species have grey feathers, yellow or orange patches, or black stripes. Fictional waddlers Because they look like little people waddling around in formal suits, penguins have been popular characters in cartoons, TV shows, films and literature. Norman Lindsay’s 1918 book The Magic Pudding features penguin Sam Sawnoff, whose “feet were sitting down and his body was standing up, because his feet were so short and his body so long that he had to do both together’’. The 1938 book Mr Popper’s Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater saw an American family having to cope with looking after 12 penguins. Eventually they try to work them into a stage act but when that doesn’t work out they are sent off to the North Pole. The book was adapted to a film in 2011, starring Jim Carrey as Mr Popper. One of cartoon crusader Batman’s arch enemies was the aristocratic Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot, also known as The Penguin. Created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, he first appeared in the comic strip in 1941. The animated feature Happy Feet (2006) was about an emperor penguin who couldn’t sing but could dance. The sequel, Happy Feet 2, opens soon. eyeball so that they can see under water and out of the water. n L ike other birds, penguins have no teeth, so they swallow their food — usually fish — whole. Their mouth and throat is lined with spikes that prevent the fish from sliding back out. n P enguins have extra layers of body fat to help insulate them against the cold. n P enguins do not have light, air-filled bones like most species of birds because they need the ballast to be able to dive underwater to catch their prey. Getting around hop and jump. their waddle, but they can Penguins are best known for to its own height and will check ledges with up A penguin can jump almost can also toboggan can jump on to them. They it r the whe ge with their feet and its beak to gau ng alo lves pushing themse by lying flat on their belly and re they are most graceful as they reach whe wings. But it is under water speeds of up to 12km/h. Fairy penguins run along the For free teacher resources visit thetelegraph.com.au/classmate (EUDYPTULA MINOR) At just 30cm tall and weighing 1kg as an adult, this is the smallest species of penguin. It is found only in New Zealand and Australia and their surrounding islands. Fairy penguins make their homes on rocky shorelines or sand dunes at night. They rush to the sea in groups in the dark hours of the morning to feed and return to their homes at dusk. The scientific name means “good little diver”, but in fact they can only hold their breath for a minute and dive to 60m. They eat small schooling fish and sometimes krill, and will occasionally swim up to 100km a day looking for food. (SPHENISCUS MAGELLANICUS) All penguins have a similar streamlined shape that enables them to move quickly and gracefully through the water. Standing 71cm tall, these penguins, named after Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, are mostly found in South America and its surrounding islands. They have distinctive white stripes on the black parts of their head and chest. Overfishing in the waters off South America has reduced their numbers in recent years. Jim Carrey in a scene from Mr Popper’s Penguins Rockhopper penguin King penguin (APTENODYTES PATAGONICUS) Gentoo penguin (EUDYPTES CHRYSOCOME) The second biggest species of penguin, they stand 95cm tall and weigh up to 15kg. They also have the largest beak and can open their mouth wider than any other penguin. They use this beak to swallow lantern fish and squid. They breed on Antarctic and subAntarctic islands, looking for patches of rock or beach not covered in snow or ice. Although they have similar colouring to emperor penguins, they have a distinctive comma-shaped orange mark on their neck. These yellow-crested, 60cm-tall penguins earn their name from their ability to climb over rocks. They have distinctive yellow feathers on their heads and are the most aggressive of penguins. They often fight, not only with other penguins but also with humans or any other animals that venture too close. They breed on sub-Antarctic islands but visit southern Australia in winter. (EUDYPTES CHRYSOLOPHUS) No, they are not named macaroni penguins because their head feathers look like noodles. The name comes from a strange hairstyle popular in Britain in the 18th century. About 60cm tall, they are believed to be either related to, or the same species as, the royal penguin. They breed on rocky coasts of the Antarctic peninsula or on Antarctic and sub-Antarctic islands. Snug as an egg Adelie penguin Emperor and king penguins incubate eggs on the tops of their feet, where they fit snugly because of their elliptical shape. And if the egg happens to fall off, it will roll in a circle instead of in a straight line away from the parent bird. Egg size varies according to the species. (Pygoscelis adeliae) feed sand towards the water to Emperor King Macaroni penguin Gentoo Magellanic Adelie Adelie penguins are named after the wife of French explorer Jules Dumont d’Urville, after whom part of Antarctica is named. The cute 60cm-tall penguins have black faces and white circles around their eyes. They build nests of stones and will fight ferociously with each other in competition for nest material. They eat krill, which makes their droppings red. When viewed from the air their nesting grounds appear as red patches. NN IVER S Did you know? Magellanic penguin The perfect build n T he wings are too small to enable them to fly, but are like the fins of a fish, excellent for propelling them through the water. n Penguins have webbed feet to help them swim. n T he body is covered with waterproof feathers that trap air to help them stay warm. The feathers become waterproof with a coating of oil emitted by a gland near the base of the tail. Penguins use their beak to spread the oil over all of their feathers in a process known as preening. n A penguin’s eyes have a unique flat lens at the front of the Little or fairy penguin RY (APTENODYTES FORSTERI) h What is a penguin? Emperor penguin 10t P enguins are an interesting breed of bird. These waddling, flightless creatures are all native to the southern hemisphere, many of them living in chilly climates but some in warmer areas such as Australia. Because of their somewhat comic appearance they have endeared themselves to humans, particularly through movies such as Happy Feet and Mr Popper’s Penguins. But while we are amused by fictional penguins, the real birds are also fascinating animals. SS M A T E A L C A 35 w (PYGOSCELIS PAPUA) Although it has the word “papua” in its scientific name the gentoo penguin is not found anywhere near New Guinea as was once thought. Gentoos stand about 60cm tall and weigh 5kg. They have a distinctive white mark above their eyes and orange beaks. They like to build elaborate nests on grassy slopes above the beaches of mostly sub-Antarctic islands. These nests are made of bones, stones and feathers. n The deepest recorded dive by an emperor penguin was to a depth of 565m. The dive was observed near McMurdo Sound by biologist Gerry Kooyman, who used a device he attached to the penguin that automatically recorded the depth of the dive. n Scientists have identified more than 40 extinct species of penguin including one that lived as recently as 500 years ago in New Zealand and a 1.5m tall penguin that once lived on the coast of Peru. n In 1935, when publisher Allen Lane was looking for a name for his series of cheap imprints of high quality books, his secretary suggested he call them Penguins. Lane sent a colleague to the London Zoo to sketch a penguin that now appears on all the Penguin publishing house’s books. n The Galapagos penguin lives in the tropics, but during the heat of the day swims in the cool currents off the islands. In the cool of night it lives on the islands. n The fairy penguin colony at North Head, Manly, is protected by a springer spaniel named Eco who keeps foxes and feral cats from attacking the penguins. n Because penguins often stay at sea for long periods they have adapted to drink salt water and filter out the salt through their nostrils. n Penguins are believed to share a common ancestor with albatrosses, shearwaters and petrels. A fossil of an animal believed to be an early ancestor of the penguin was found in Canterbury, New Zealand, in 1980. Called a waimanu (Maori for water bird), the flightless bird lived about 60 million years ago. n Although some of the penguins in the film Mr Popper’s Penguins are computer-generated, real penguins were used for much of the filming. The set had to be kept at temperatures between 2C and 10C. The penguins also had their own walk-in freezer unit, where they stayed between takes. Sources & further study Books Penguins Of The World, by Pauline Reilly (Oxford) The Penguin Book: Birds In Suits, by Dr Mark Norman (Black Dog Books) The Field Guide To The Birds Of Australia, by Graham Pizzey and Frank Knight (HarperCollins) Websites Taronga Zoo zootopia.com.au Penguins antarctica.gov.au/about-antarctica/factfiles/animals/penguins Movies Mr Popper’s Penguins (Roadshow DVD) March Of The Penguins (Warner DVD). Happy Feet 2 opens in cinemas in December Cl@ssmate EVERY TUESDAY Email [email protected] Phone 9288 2542 Editor/writer: Troy Lennon Graphics: Paul Leigh and Will Pearce