Honolulu Star-Advertiser © Susan Scott
March 19, 2001
What are the cutest, funniest and most lovable marine animals in the world? My vote goes to penguins.
I say this because I recently visited Antarctica, South Georgia and the Falkland Islands and spent every moment I could with these seabirds-in-tuxes. They completely stole my heart.
One of the reasons people love penguins so much, I think, is that they are not afraid of us. The reason for this fearlessness is the same reason Hawaii’s seabirds do not fear humans: They evolved with no land predators.
Contrary to some of Gary Larson’s witty “Far Side” cartoons, penguins’ and polar bears’ paths never cross. Polar bears live only in the far north, penguins only in the far south.
When a line of people parades through a penguin colony, the birds may waddle out of the path (or not), but they do not flee. This makes penguin-watching in Antarctica as easy as people-watching in Waikiki. You just find a comfortable spot to sit (preferably not in a pile of guano), lean back and observe.
Penguins, in turn, observe back. Some step up and look straight into your face or camera lens. Others may venture over to examine a boot, peck at a glove or hop onto a day pack. During these sessions you have to wonder who is actually watching whom.
Another plus for penguins is their good looks, specifically the exquisite patterns, textures and colors of their feathers. The dapper, black-and-white birds look like they are dressed up for a formal ball.
In the breeding colonies, however, penguins are often dirty and disheveled. At first glance many of them even look wounded, with chicks and parents bearing rusty red stains on their gleaming white shirtfronts. After watching parents feed chicks for a while, it’s clear that the red stuff is not blood but spilled krill, the shrimplike, main food source of some types of penguins.
Penguins also get dirty during feeding chases. These occur when penguin parents come back to the colony to feed their chicks.
At the first sight of an adult with food, several chicks, which huddle together for warmth, rush to it calling for food. Some of these beggars are the parent’s true offspring, and some are impostors.
To sort it out, the mobbed adult takes off running, followed by a train of noisy, flailing chicks that trip and stumble, often crashing flat on their faces and rolling off the sides of rocks.
This hilarious pursuit can last for 10 or 15 minutes until the pretenders drop off. The parent then feeds its one or two true chicks, the only ones that will never give up the chase.
Another behavior that brings smiles to observers’ faces is the penguin version of tobogganing. To get to their nesting grounds, penguins usually waddle and hop on pink, webbed feet that slap the ground like little swim fins.
But when there is a snow or ice field nearby, some birds flop down on their bellies and glide, using their sharp toenails to push them along. It’s hard to keep a straight face while watching tobogganing penguins.
They look like footballs with feet.
When I was preparing for this trip, people often asked me why anyone in their right mind would go to Antarctica for a vacation. The answer is easy: to watch the cutest, funniest and most lovable seabirds in the world.