and then the penguins! It was amazing - we were able to walk within feet of thousands of penguins - they seemed oblivious that we were there.
There were 2 types of penguins on the island - the Magellanic and the Gentoo. They live on average about 15 years and start to breed when they are 5 years old.
Our guide was very informative
The Magellanic come to the island in summer from about September to March, to breed and molt - within a month from now they will head north (the Gentoo stay all year).
Each year the penguins come back to the same island to breed - the male makes a nice nest in a burrow (usually using the same one year after year) for the female to lay her eggs.
Within about 2 months of being born, the juveniles are ready to head off on their own to the water, not to return until the next year, to molt.
Within about 2 months of being born, the juveniles are ready to head off on their own to the water, not to return until the next year, to molt.
After giving birth and feeding their young, the penguins are ready for their annual molt. They spend about 5 days molting and during that time are unable to go in the water (to catch food) Therefor, before molting they eat a lot and get fat, to enable themselves to go for 5 days without food. They also stay very still during the molting process to reduce the energy they use. While we were there, a lot of the penguins were molting:
These were different type of penguins to those seen in the film "Happy Feet" - (which live on snow and the male keeps the eggs on his feet, rather than in nests.)
It was late afternoon and windy and cold on the island - most others on the trip had big coats, hats gloves etc! - Charlotte and I wore our six layers but were still cold - someone lent Charlotte gloves and the guide gave me his coat! (note the pictures below). However, the cold didn't seem to bother Jimmy - he wore just a T-shirt and Yankee windbreaker - I guess all the Argentine beef BBQs had prepared him well for the cold!