11.17.06

Our adopted penguins have now returned to the colony, and have spent the last couple of weeks repairing their nests and laying eggs. Your penguin's nest now has two eggs, which is the usual number for Magellanic penguins. I am pleased to be able to attach a photo of your penguin sitting over the eggs.

Your penguin lives in the penguin colony on Magdalena Island, which is about 45 kilometres north-east of the city of Punta Arenas in southern Chile. It is situated in the middle of the Straits of Magellan, between mainland South America and Tierra del Fuego.

I also attach a map of the colony, to show you exactly where your penguin's nest is located, in case you ever want to visit.

Each egg is about twice the size of a chicken egg, weighing 125 grams each, and they take about 40 days to hatch. Both adults take turns incubating the eggs during this time. Whilst incubating the eggs the adults cannot feed, so by changing over every few days, both adults are able to go to sea to feed.

Incubating the eggs not only keeps them warm, but also protects them from gulls and skuas, that would steal the eggs given the chance. The nests are in burrows, which offer some protection from normal rain, but if very heavy rain falls for a prolonged period of time, the burrows can begin to become flooded, killing the eggs. Fortunately this does not happen often.

The two eggs are laid about 4 days apart, and the chicks also hatch about 4 days apart. As such there is always one chick slightly bigger and stronger than the other. If food is abundant, then both chicks will be kept well fed, but if food is difficult to find, then the larger chick will get most of the food by pushing its weaker sibling out of the way. This cruel breeding strategy prevents both chicks from starving if there is adequate food for one healthy chick.

Fortunately in Chile and Argentina, food is sufficiently abundant for both chicks to be kept well fed most seasons, and chick production is high. In the Falklands however, the situation is so bad that there is rarely enough food for even one chick to be adequately fed, and the population has declined by 90% since the establishment of commercial fishing in 1987. This is the result of blatant over-fishing by the commercial fishing industry, taking away the food that penguins need to raise their chicks. Despite calls from penguin conservationists the world over to establish no-fishing zones around the penguin colonies, the wealthy Falklands government continues to put greed ahead of wildlife.

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Thankfully the governments of Chile and Argentina have a more enlightened attitude towards wildlife protection. Our study sites in Chile and Argentina both have no-fishing zones around the penguin colonies, put in place by the governments of Chile and Argentina many years ago to protect penguins. As a result both these colonies are healthy and increasing in population.

I will write to you again when the eggs have hatched.

Our adopted penguins have now completed the incubation phase, and PoPoMo Jr's eggs have both hatched successfully. This year egg loses have been lower than usual in the colony, thanks to the recent dry weather, and most nests having produced two healthy little chicks.

The newly hatched chicks weigh about 100 grams each, but they will put on weight very quickly, increasing their weight 30 times over the next 8 to 10 weeks. That is like human babies growing into 90kg men in two months! Pity the mother that has to feed them.

At the moment the chicks are small and defenceless, and need one of the parents to keep them warm and safe. The chicks' food requirements are also low at the moment, because they do not eat much being so small. So for now one of the parents always stays with the chicks, keeping them warm and safe, whilst the other parent is out at sea catching food to bring back each day.

Because the chicks are so small at the moment, and hiding under the parent, it is not yet possible for us to take photos of your chicks. However I attach a couple of photos of other newly hatched chicks, so that you can see what your chicks look like at this stage. About half way through their development, in about another 5 weeks, the chicks will be big enough for us to take photos of your actual chicks.

As the chicks grow, they soon develop the ability to keep themselves warm, and as they get bigger their demand for food also increases. Eventually their demand for food becomes greater than what one parent can catch, so both parents then leave the nest each day to catch food, leaving the chicks alone in the nest.

The chicks also become more adventurous by now, and begin leaving the nest for short periods, making it easy for us to get good photos. They rarely stray far though, because skuas (large gulls) are always on the look out for careless chicks that stray too far from the safety of their nest.

The chicks are fed almost entirely small fish of the species 'Sprattus fuegensis'.

These are not unlike what you find in cans of sardines (but without the tomato sauce). Generally the adults catch their food as close as possible to the nest, so that the chicks are not left for so long without food. For this reason good food availability close to the colony is very important during chick-rearing.

Both Chile and Argentina protect their penguin colonies from commercial fishing, but sadly the Falkland Islands refuse to do so, and this is reflected in poor chick survival around the Falklands.

Fish is very nutritious, and easily digested, which is necessary to maintain the chicks rapid growth. Adult penguins often eat other foods, such as squid and crustaceans (shrimps and the like), but the chicks need fish. Magellanic penguin chicks cannot survive on crustaceans because they are too indigestible.

It would be like trying to feed a human baby on raw crabs and lobsters.

I will write to you again with the next update in about 5 to 6 weeks, with a photo of your chicks.

12-31-06

1-7-07

This has been a fantastic season for our penguins so far. First of all egg losses were low, thanks to good weather during the egg-incubation phase, and now chick survival has been very high, with very few chicks being lost so far.

The first 10 days after hatching are the most dangerous time for the chicks, when they are still small and weak, but PoPoMo Jr's chicks are now well past that, and are now almost as big as PoPoMo Jr. Food has been very abundant this year, and the chicks have grown at an incredible rate.

The chicks are now able to leave the nest for short periods of time, and during nice weather they are wandering around near to the nest. But they do not go far, in case that predators like skuas (large gulls) are around. At the first sign of danger the chicks run back into the nest for protection. I attach a photo of PoPoMo Jr's chicks

When the chicks are less than 10 days old they can die from a number of causes.

Simply being stood on by the adult, or being left for too long uncovered, is all that it takes. But the chicks grow rapidly, and after about 7 to 10 days they are much tougher and more resistant to being squashed, and much more able to push their way back under one of the adults if they start to feel cold. From then on, provided they keep a careful eye out for predators, it is the amount of food available that effects their chances of survival, and how quickly they grow.

Some penguins, like King and Emperor penguins, only lay one egg, because these chicks are very large, and the adults would be unable to find enough food to raise two healthy chicks of such a size. Magellanic penguins lay two eggs, but the eggs hatch about 4 days apart, so one chick is slightly older, and therefore slightly bigger and stronger, than the other. If there is only enough food for one chick, then the oldest and largest chick will push its way to the front to get all the food. The younger and smaller chick only gets fed when the oldest chick is satisfied and too full to move, and so the difference in size and strength between the two chicks increases week by week when food is not abundant.

However in Chile and Argentina the penguin colonies are protected from commercial fishing, and fish are abundant, so there is plenty of food for both chicks. With both chicks getting well fed, and growing rapidly, a four day age difference disappears after a few weeks, and both chicks become equal in size, as you can see from the photo.

This is a very busy time for PoPoMo Jr, rushing backwards and forwards to the ocean to catch fish for the chicks. Adult penguins loose weight during this period, and after the chicks have left, the parents need time to rest and recover their weight and condition.

But for the chicks this is the easiest part of their life. They just hang around the nest waiting for the adults to bring them food. Their feathers are fluffy, which are good for keeping them warm when they are dry, but the chicks cannot enter the sea with these feathers. The chicks have about another 4 weeks of this pampering before they are in for a shock.

Once the chicks are fully grown, they change their fluffy chick feathers for sleek, waterproof feathers that they need for keeping them warm and dry in the ocean. And then the adults stop feeding them. When the chicks get hungry enough, and realise that the parents are not going to give them more food, they are forced to go to sea and catch food for themselves. From then on they are completely on their own.

But for now at least, the chicks have a few more weeks of being treated like royalty. I will write to you again when the chicks have left the nest to begin life on their own.

March 4, 2007

After just a few short weeks of childhood, PoPoMo Jr's chicks have now finally left the colony to begin life on their own. For the last few weeks their entire world has consisted of the area surrounding their nest, and now they have the freedom of the open ocean, but it is a freedom that comes with a price.

In the nest they were brought all their food by attentive parents, but now the chicks are completely on their own. They must learn where to find the fish they need for survival, and how to catch it. Their flippers have not yet reached full strength, so they lack the speed of the adults, and yet they will not enjoy their next meal until they have mastered the art of finding and catching fish.

Being well fed is important in keeping the chicks going until they catch their first fish, so the chicks are weighed before they leave. I attach a photo of me weighing a chick, to show how this is done. It looks undignified, but it does not harm the chicks. Both of PoPoMo Jr's chicks weighed over 3 kilograms when they left, which is good.

For the first few weeks they will hang around the best feeding areas with the adult penguins, practising and practising, until their hunting skills improve and their flippers gain strength. They may even pass their parents by chance, but would no longer know them. Chicks identify their parents by calls on land, but these calls are not used at sea.

Whilst the chicks are learning their skills, PoPoMo Jr and the other adults are also out feeding. Chick-rearing is exhausting work for the parents, and most adults loose weight during this period. Now the parents enjoy time to relax and to catch all the fish they can eat, so as to regain the weight that they have lost. Within another 4 weeks the adults will return to change their feathers (called moulting or molting), and they need to build up good body fat reserves before their moult.

We are rapidly approaching our Autumn (Fall) here in the southern hemisphere, and as the hours of daylight diminish day by day, the chicks will start moving northwards, where the hours of daylight are longer. The extra hours of daylight afforded by moving northwards in winter means more hours during which the chicks can hunt for food, and this is very important when they rely on seeing their prey at depths of 30 or 40 metres below the surface, where light levels are greatly reduced.

Next summer the chicks will migrate further south again, but probably not as far as their birthplace. Most will not return to the colony again until they are 4 or 5 years old, by which time they will begin looking to raise chicks of their own.

Many people have written asking to adopt the chicks. I really wish we could allow people to adopt the chicks, but it is just impossible. With the chicks leaving the colony and not returning for several years, it is impossible for us to keep track of the chicks, and therefore impossible to report on their progress. Even when they do return, we have no way of determining their identity. Tagging (banding) penguin chicks would seriously reduce their chances of survival, and they have enough to cope with at this time in their lives.

The average adult Magellanic penguin is so streamlined that it produces about the same resistance through the water as a large coin. So adding an identification tag would seriously increase the drag through the water, reducing speed and requiring the penguin to use more energy. Tagging adults, which are experienced at catching fish, would cause some reduction in their ability to catch food. Tagging chicks, which face the toughest few weeks of their life when they leave the nest, would seriously reduce their chances of survival. Such interference could not be justified, except under special circumstances, and as such we never tag chicks.

The adults now spend little time in the nest, and are generally either out in the water feeding, or resting on the beach. In a few weeks they will return to their nest to begin moulting, and I will write to let you know when that happens.

April 29, 2007

PoPoMo Jr and our adopted penguins are now back in the colony undergoing their annual moult. This process takes about 3 to 4 weeks, as new feathers grow in from underneath the skin, pushing out the old feathers. The process works in a similar way to children's first set of teeth being replaced by adult teeth, but without the pain I hope. Having feathers in good condition is very important for PoPoMo Jr's survival.

The ocean is cold, and if it were not for the incredible insulation provided by the feathers, penguins would quickly suffer from hypothermia (getting very cold). The feathers lock together with thousands of tiny hooks, which enable them to zip together, forming a tight waterproof seal. The feathers are also coated with a waxy substance, which penguins apply every time they preen themselves, which prevents water from penetrating the feathers. Water doesn't just run off a duck's back, it runs off a penguin's back too.

But just as our clothes wear out if we wear them every day, so too do PoPoMo Jr's feathers. As the feathers become damaged, they become less and less able to zip together, and if the feathers are not replaced, they would begin to leak. However the process of changing the feathers also causes major leaks in the penguin's plumage, as old feathers drop out and new ones grow in. In fact moulting causes so many leaks in the penguin's plumage that penguins are not able to enter the water at all during their moult. And since penguins find all their food at sea, that means they are unable to eat anything during their moult either.

Actually the 25th Anniversary of the Falklands War is now taking place, and the Falklands' continued refusal to protect penguins from starvation caused by over-fishing, is once again attracting the attention of the international media. The Falkland Islands (a British Overseas Territory), is the wealthiest community in the whole of South America, and yet they are the ONLY country in South America that refuses to protect penguins from commercial fishing. So far 5 million penguins have been lost in the Falklands, as a direct result of commercial fishing, providing the tiny population of 2000 British citizens with a life of excess wealth and luxury.

The situation is an embarrassment that Britain should resolve without further delay.

When PoPoMo Jr and our adopted penguins finish their moult, they will then leave the colony and begin migrating northwards, to escape the southern winter. I will let you know when that happens.

June 21, 2007

PoPoMo Jr and our adopted penguins have now finished their annual moult (molt) and have left the colony for the winter to begin their seasonal migration up the Atlantic coast of South America.

We study penguins at three locations, Chile, Argentina and the Falklands, and now our penguins from all three countries merge together as they migrate northwards in search of longer hours of daylight. Catching fish at 15 or 20 metres below the sea surface means that sunlight levels need to be good. Even on a nice sunny day, light levels reduce quickly when one begins to dive down into the depths of the ocean, and penguins need to be able to see the fish to catch them.

In both the north and south poles, there is 24 hour daylight in summer, and 24 hour darkness in winter. At the equator, such as in Hawaii where I used to study sea turtles many years ago, there is very little difference in day length between winter and summer. And when you live anywhere between the equator and the pole, as most of us do, the hours of daylight we enjoy depend on which of the two we live nearest to.

Our penguin colonies in Chile, Argentina and the Falklands, are much nearer to the South Pole then the equator, so in summer the penguins enjoy long hours of daylight to feed their chicks (about 18 hours per day). But in winter these colonies have very short days (about 8 hours per day). So the penguins migrate northwards in winter to be nearer the equator, so that they can enjoy longer hours of daylight to catch fish. They very rarely reach the equator, but they do reach Brazil, with some penguins travelling several hundred kilometres north of Rio de Janeiro, which is only a few hundred kilometres short of the equator (see attached map).

Penguins are long distance travellers, as you can see, but last winter we had a confirmed sighting of a Magellanic penguin reaching England!. It was seen by several people over a period of several days in a place called Chapel Rock, which is near to Land's End in Cornwall, England. To my knowledge, this is the only reported sighting of a wild penguin in Britain, but I am always happy to receive information of similar incredible journeys.

What is interesting is that in some areas of Australia and New Zealand, Little penguins have become so used to people that they nest under houses. And we first found our Little penguin not in a burrow, or with the Magellanic penguins, but under our generator shed.

Little penguins do not migrate like Magellanic penguins, so in winter our Little penguin is the only penguin still around on Magdalena Island. In winter it now uses one of the burrows down by the water's edge, but in summer, the larger owner of the burrow (a Magellanic penguin) takes back the burrow, and our Little penguin is left homeless for a few months.

Even though our adopted penguins migrate northwards every winter, it is not like the migration of flying birds. Magellanic penguins do not set off on one long journey. Instead they simply hunt for food each day in a northerly direction, instead of in circles, so that day by day they gradually move northwards.

Then around July, they change, and begin hunting for fish in a southerly direction, so that they eventually arrive back at their colony. It will be September before our penguins arrive back home, but I will write to you again in a few weeks with results from this season's studies.

August 15, 2007

PoPoMo Jr and our adopted penguins have now reached the farthest point of their winter migration. In another couple of weeks they will begin making their way back down the Atlantic coast of South America, back to their nests, ready to begin another season of egg-laying and chick-rearing. So this seems a good time for me to tell you about the results of our penguin research which your adoption pays for.

As you will know from previous reports, Magellanic penguins only live in Chile, Argentina and the Falkland Islands, and we have study colonies in all three locations.

Last season was a really good year for most of our penguins, with lots of healthy chicks being reared in Chile and Argentina. Our study sites in these two countries showed very similar results, with both sites averaging about 1.4 chicks per nest, one of the best years we have ever recorded. Two eggs are laid in each nest, so this means that about 70% of all eggs laid grew into healthy chicks that survived to begin life on their own. This is very good indeed. About one chick per nest (or 50% of eggs laid) is more than enough to maintain a healthy population.

I attach three graphs showing the results from each of our study sites. The left side of each graph shows how the colony starts with 100% of the eggs laid still surviving (because they have only just been laid), and as time goes by this gradually gets less as eggs and chicks are lost one by one. The line along the bottom gives the date, and above the date you will see the words 'Eggs', 'Chicks' and 'Fledged' which show the stage of development for that date. (Fledged means the chick is fully grown and has left the nest to begin life on its own). Please remember that these dates and stages of development are averages for the whole colony, so they may be different from your penguin.

You will see that the graphs for Chile and Argentina are very similar. The main losses at both these sites were losses of eggs and small chicks, and this indicates a healthy colony. Some eggs are always lost before they hatch. Some are infertile, some are stolen by predators, and some get abandoned or broken by inexperienced parents. Bad weather and food shortages can increase egg losses, but last season egg losses were normal.

Very small chicks also die for a number of reasons during the first 7 to 10 days of their life, because they are so weak and helpless at this age. Being so small they can easily get stood on by the adults, or fall out of the central nest area and get cold, or simply loose too much strength struggling to break out of the egg. These are natural causes, and have nothing to do with the health of the colony or the availability of food. The reason that this 7 to 10 day period covers about a month on the graph is because the chicks are not all hatching on the same date.

After chicks reach about 10 days of age they are strong enough to survive minor mishaps, and their survival from then on depends almost entirely on the availability of food. If food is plentiful, chick losses will be very low, and this is what we see for both Chile and Argentina. At these two sites very few chicks died after they had reached 10 days of age (the graph is flat showing very little reduction in the number of eggs surviving) which indicates a healthy colony with good food supply. This is largely thanks to the control of commercial fishing around penguin colonies by the Chilean and Argentine governments.

Unfortunately the situation is very different in the Falkland Islands, as you can see from the graph, because in the Falklands the penguins are not protected from commercial fishing. Right from the start egg losses and losses of small chicks are much greater than in Chile and Argentina. Fish and squid are in such short supply around the Falklands, because of commercial fishing, that adult penguins are forced to travel such long distances looking for food that many penguins abandon their nests. Also you can see from the graph that even after chicks have reached 10 days of age, the chicks continue to die, (the graph keeps dropping), and this is the result of starvation.

Around the Falklands there are so many fishing boats removing the fish and squid which penguins need to feed their chicks, that most chicks do not get enough to eat, and eventually starve or become so weak that they die from illness. This situation has been carrying on for the last 20 years, and penguin populations have declined by over 90% in the Falklands as a result. Many of our adoptees will know of my long-standing battle with the Falklands government over protection for penguins (see www.falklands.net), but help might be at hand at long last, and you can help too.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have announced that they are considering adding 10 penguin species to the Endangered Species Act, including two species that breed in the Falkland Islands. The Magellanic penguins are not included amongst these ten, because their populations are still healthy in Chile and Argentina, but they will nevertheless benefit from commercial-fishing restrictions that the Falkland Islands may eventually be forced to impose if the proposals go ahead.

Even though no penguins breed in the USA, the protection of these penguins under the Endangered Species Act would be of great benefit to conservation efforts wherever these penguins live.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service have opened up a consultation period, during which they invite comments and opinions from all interested parties as to whether these penguins should be included in the Endangered Species Act or not.

People have until the first week of September to send in their views, and I invite as many people as possible to write in supporting the inclusion of these penguins in the Endangered Species Act.

You can send your views by letter to The Special Assistant to the Deputy Assistant Director International Affairs U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
4401 N. Fairfax Drive, Room 760
Arlington, VA 22203 - USA

OR by fax to 703-358-2276 OR by Email to DSApenguins@fws.govOR through the Federal eRulemaking portal at www.regulations.gov.

Below you will find the full details of the new proposals, and I also attachour letter of support for these proposals.

Best wishes,
Mike

October 8, 2007 - FINAL TRANSMISSION

Our penguins are now back in the colony to begin another season of egg-laying and chick-rearing, so you will soon be receiving photos of PoPoMo Jr. Males arrive back a few days before the females, and wait for their partners to return.

There are always more males than females, so males cannot risk loosing their partner to another male by arriving home late.

As the pairs meet up again after several weeks apart, they renew their friendship by rituals of head-bowing and synchronised calls. Magellanic penguins raise their heads skywards, and let out a long bellowing sound that is almost identical to a donkey braying. This strange call has earned this family of penguins the nickname 'Jackass penguins".

Once the friendships and marriage vows have been re-established, the penguins begin the task of rebuilding their nests. Pairs return to the same nest each year, but the harsh winter weather causes serious damage to the nests, so they need to be repaired before egg-laying can begin. The winds in southern Patagonia, where our penguins live, are so strong that in dry weather so much dust is blown around that burrows can become buried, and can disappear completely within a few days when the penguins are not around to keep up the maintenance. In wet weather, so much rain can fall that entire areas of the colony can become submerged (see attached photo). Fortunately this mostly happens in winter when the penguins are away from the colony.

In our Chilean and Falklands colonies, the penguins make their nests inside burrows, but these burrows often collapse during the winter, and need re-digging, which takes many days. Digging is done with the feet, which have long powerful claws. The usual method of digging is to lie on their backs and scratch rapidly at the soil. Some digging is also done with the beak. Burrows provide good protection from predators, such as skuas (large gulls), so Magellanic penguins always dig burrows when possible. But in our Argentine colony at Cabo Virgenes, the soil is very sandy, making it impossible to dig burrows because the soil simply collapses. (Try digging a tunnel on a sandy beach).

So at Cabo Virgenes, and at most of the other colonies in Argentina, Magellanic penguins do not dig burrows. Instead they nest in an area covered in thorny bushes, and dig simple depressions at the base of the bushes, using the bushes to give shelter from the weather and predators. Although this gives less protection from predators and bad weather, it does have some advantages. During exceptionally severe summer rains, burrows can fill with water, but the simple depressions made in sandy soil do not. Secondly, until chicks reach about 4 or 5 weeks of age, they are forced to go to the bathroom inside the nest, so burrows become exceedingly smelly and unhealthy. One definite advantage of an open nest.

To show just how adaptable Magellanic penguins are, I attach a photo I took on Isla Pinguino in Argentina. Here there is no soil and no vegetation, so the penguins nest in open nests amongst the stones. In a couple of weeks time I will be sending out the photos of all our adopted penguins in Argentina. Then about two weeks after that, our penguins in Chile. The timing of sending out photos is determined by the penguins and not by us

We have to wait until the penguins have laid their eggs before we can take the photos. If we attempted to take photos earlier we would risk causing the penguin to flee the nest. Our penguins in Argentina are now almost at the point of egg-laying, so I estimate a couple of weeks to send out these photos. The penguins in Chile are always a couple of weeks behind those in Argentina, so it will be early November when these photos go out. Our penguins in the Falklands are always the last to lay, a couple of weeks behind Chile.

You can see a map showing the locations of our three study sites at www.seabirds.org\penguinstudysites.htm and you can find photos, maps and information about each site at www.seabirds.org\study-argentina.htm / www.seabirds.org\study-chile.htm,www.falklands.net