Today, class, is Penguin Awareness Day, and thus I shall be making you aware of penguins. From Gunther in Adventure Time to Pingu, penguins are all over the place in media, and they're pretty cool. It is usually just the most famous of penguin breeds that get all the attention, though, and there is much more to penguins than just the Emperor penguins from Happy Feet. For the purposes of identification, I have tracked down this comparative chart.
Whether there are 17 or 18 different breeds of penguins seems to be a hotly contested issue amongst the penguin specialist community, but 18 are shown on the above image, so we've got our bases covered either way. I will go into further detail describing some of these breeds, the choice of which shall be dictated by nothing other than my whimsy and the availability of penguin research resources. I readily admit that I am not a wealth of penguin information myself, so in order to save referencing everything, I've just listed the resources used at the bottom of this post.
Erect-Crested Penguin Eudyptes atratus
I chose this guy because he had an interesting name and I like how his yellow eyebrows (aka his crest) make him look constantly consternated. His crest is similar to that of the Snares and Fiordland penguins, and makes him difficult to identify while at sea, as it droops when wet. He is one of the rarest breeds of penguin, living in the Sub-Antarctic feeding off small fish and krill. Standing at only about 20 inches tall, he's quite small for a penguin, which makes him prey for not only the ubiquitous seals, but also Skua, a type of predatory bird. Erect-crested penguins breed on rocky slopes near the sea, and whilst a select few pairs make nests, most of them are hardcore and just lay their eggs straight onto the cold rocks.
They usually lay two eggs after a long courtship (giggity) of which the first one unfortunately mostly dies. The second one, which in some cases can be up to twice as large, is usually looked after much better by the adult penguins and survives it's incubation period. Not much more is known about these secretive guys, but interestingly considering their physique they are excellent climbers, capable of climbing steep rocky cliffs that would be a long trial for fully equipped and experienced humans.
Little Blue Penguin or Fairy Penguin Eudyptula minor
Well, it's easy to see how these little guys got their name! I chose this breed because both fairy penguin and little blue penguin are excellent names, plus they are very small and cute, and interestingly enough, blue! This breed of penguin are smaller than their Erect-Crested cousins, standing at only about 16 inches tall and weighing in at around 2lbs. These guys prefer warmer water also, and so live in the Southern Hemisphere, mostly in Australasia, on a diet of crustaceans and small fish, with the odd baby octopus or squid thrown in. Strangely for penguins, this breed is predominantly nocturnal, although this may be due to the sheer number of predators they have. Being so small, this species has to worry about pretty much every carnivorous land and sea animal bigger than it and native to the same habitat, from killer whales to rats. They live for about seven years, mating when about four and staying with the same partner for life (awwww). They mostly live in established and well-defined colonies, with each pair having their own nest or burrow which they return to year after year. In some nature reserves in Australia you can go to observe these tiny penguins in their natural habitat. Probably the most famous of these places is Philip Island with it's nightly 'penguin parade.'
Rockhopper Penguins Eudyptes chrysocome
The Rockhoppers are the cause of dissent amongst the ranks of penguin fanciers. Some insist that the Northern and Southern Rockhoppers are distinct enough to warrant separate species classification, but this claim is refuted by many others. I care little for such an argument, so I shall just impart some general Rockhopper facts here, for you to take as you will. These guys are again crested, albeit not quite as angrily as their Erect-Crested relatives. They also have cool-but-slightly-creepy red eyes which I like. I had to wear contacts to make my eyes look like that at Halloween last year, so well done pal.
The suave crests come into play whilst competing for the attention of a lady Rockhopper, as the blokes waft their feathery faces all over the place in an attempt to entice a mate. This breed prefer to live in smaller groups, as opposed to the huge colonies favoured by some other penguins. Like most penguins, their diet mostly consists of water based meat smaller than themselves (an average of about 21 inches tall). They're also really really noisy apparently, which endears them to me even more. I have an affinity with loud creatures, being one myself.
*
One last thing that I discovered that I think everyone should know about penguins; for many breeds part of their mating ritual is for the male to search high and low on a beach for the perfect pebble to give to the woman of his dreams as a gift. This pebble, if accepted, becomes a symbol of their union and gets a prominent place in their nest.
Penguin love <3
So there it is. Consider yourself more aware of Penguins. If you would like to celebrate Penguin Awareness Day further, you can choose to wear black and white today and (optional) pretend to be a penguin. You could also visit a zoo to look at some of the cute little guys, or failing that, gain more penguin awareness via further reading and/or watching an Attenborough documentary about them, in which case Frozen Planet is a good shout. Partying like a penguin is also considered to be acceptable in some circles.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I don't think that I really need to spend much time going through different cheeses with you. I may be mistaken, but I believe everyone has a good idea about what kind of cheese they tend to prefer. Personally I like a good smoked cheese, like a nice Gouda, not too crumbly, not too rubbery. It's all a matter of taste really though, and everyone has their own opinion.
References
Penguin Chart http://penguingeek.wordpress.com/identification/
Penguin resources 1. http://www.penguins-world.com
2. http://www.penguinworld.com
3. http://www.nothingbutpenguins.com
Philip Island Penguin Parade http://www.aroundandabout.com.au/images/phillipadd.jpg
Pebble http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lohrddFBi31qj7d1co1_500.jpg
Dancing Gunther penguin gif http://smera.deviantart.com/
Cheese 1. http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/cheese
2. http://www.vizzitdorset.co.uk/business-news/sturminster-newton-cheese-festival.html
No comments:
Post a Comment