Antarctic Penguins: a Study of Their Social Habits

PART III. Mccormick's Skua Gull 125

McCORMICK'S SKUA GULL 125

A SHORT NOTE ON EMPEROR PENGUINS 134

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

"Occasionally an unaccountable 'broodiness' seemed to take possession of the penguins" Frontispiece

To face p.

An angry Adelie 2

Dozing 4

Waking up, stretching, and yawning 4

Pack-ice 8

Heavy seas in the autumn 8

"throw up masses of ice" 10

"which are frozen into a compact mass" 10

"and later, form the beautiful terraces of the ice-foot" 14

Penguins at the rookery 14

In the foreground a mated pair have begun to build 20

The rookery beginning to fill up 22

"The hens would keep up this peck-pecking hour after hour" 24

An affectionate couple 24

"Side by side ... nests of very big stones and nests of very small stones" 26

On the march to the rookery 28

Part of the line of approaching birds, several miles in length 30

Arriving at the rookery 32, 34

Adelies arriving 36

A cock carrying a stone to his nest 36

Several interesting things are taking place here 38

Three cocks in rivalry 40

Two of the cocks squaring up for battle 40

Hard at it 42

The end of the battle 42

The proposal 44

Cocks fighting for hens 46, 48

Penguin on nest 48

Showing the position of the two eggs 50

An Adelie in "ecstatic" attitude 50

Floods 52

Flooded 54

A nest with stones of mixed sizes 54

"Hour after hour ... they fought again and again" 56

A nest on a rock 58

"One after another, the rest of the party followed him" 58

A joy ride 60

A knot of penguins on the ice-foot 62

An Adelie leaping from the water 64

An Adelie leaping four feet high and ten feet long 66

Jumping on to slippery ice 68

"When they succeeded in pushing one of their number over, all would crane their necks over the edge" 70

Diving flat into shallow water 72, 74, 76, 78

Adelies "porpoising" 78

A perfect dive into deep water 80

Sea-leopards "lurk beneath the overhanging ledges" 82

A sea-leopard's head 84

A sea-leopard 10 ft. 61/2 in. long 86

A young sea-leopard on sea-ice 86

"With graceful arching of his neck, appeared to assure her of his readiness to take charge" 88

"The chicks began to appear" 90

An Adelie being sick 90

Method of feeding the young 92

Profile of an Adelie chick 94

A task becoming impossible 96

Adelie with chick twelve days old 98

A couple with their chicks 100

Adelie penguins have a strong love of climbing for its own sake 102

Adelies on the ice-foot 104, 106, 108

"An imprisoned hen was poking her head up" 110

"Her mate appeared to be very angry with her" 110

"When she broke out, they became reconciled" 112

Adelie nests on top of Cape Adare 112

"Leapt at one another into the air" 130

A Skua by its chick 130

An Emperor Penguin 134

Profile of an Emperor 136

ADELIE PENGUINS(1)

INTRODUCTION

The penguins of the Antarctic regions very rightly have been termed the true inhabitants of that country. The species is of great antiquity, fossil remains of their ancestors having been found, which showed that they flourished as far back as the eocene epoch. To a degree far in advance of any other bird, the penguin has adapted itself to the sea as a means of livelihood, so that it rivals the very fishes. This proficiency in the water has been gained at the expense of its power of flight, but this is a matter of small moment, as it happens.

(1) Pygoscelis adeliae.

In few other regions could such an animal as the penguin rear its young, for when on land its short legs offer small advantage as a means of getting about, and as it cannot fly, it would become an easy prey to any of the carnivora which abound in other parts of the globe. Here, however, there are none of the bears and foxes which inhabit the North Polar regions, and once ashore the penguin is safe.

The reason for this state of things is that there is no food of any description to be had inland. Ages back, a different state of things existed: tropical forests abounded, and at one time, the seals ran about on shore like dogs. As conditions changed, these latter had to take to the sea for food, with the result that their four legs, in course of time, gave place to wide paddles or "flippers," as the penguins' wings have done, so that at length they became true inhabitants of the sea.

Were the Sea-Leopards(2) (the Adelies' worst enemy) to take to the land again, there would be a speedy end to all the southern penguin rookeries. As these, however, are inhabited only during four and a half months of the year, the advantage to the seals in growing legs again would not be great enough to influence evolution in that direction. At the same time, I wonder very much that the sea-leopards, who can squirm along at a fair pace on land, have not crawled up the few yards of ice-foot intervening between the water and some of the rookeries, as, even if they could not catch the old birds, they would reap a rich harvest among the chicks when these are hatched. Fortunately however they never do this.

(2) Sea-Leopard = Stenorhinchus leptonyx.

When seen for the first time, the Adelie penguin gives you the impression of a very smart little man in an evening dress suit, so absolutely immaculate is he, with his shimmering white front and black back and shoulders. He stands about two feet five inches in height, walking very upright on his little legs.

His carriage is confident as he approaches you over the snow, curiosity in his every movement. When within a yard or two of you, as you stand silently watching him, he halts, poking his head forward with little jerky movements, first to one side, then to the other, using his right and left eye alternately during his inspection. He seems to prefer using one eye at a time when viewing any near object, but when looking far ahead, or walking along, he looks straight ahead of him, using both eyes. He does this, too, when his anger is aroused, holding his head very high, and appearing to squint at you along his beak, as in Figure 1.

After a careful inspection, he may suddenly lose all interest in you, and ruffling up his feathers sink into a doze. Stand still for a minute till he has settled himself to sleep, then make sound enough to wake him without startling him, and he opens his eyes, stretching himself, yawns, then finally walks off, caring no more about you. (Figs. 2 and 3.)

The wings of Adelies, like those of the other penguins, have taken the form of paddles, and are covered with very fine scale-like feathers. Their legs being very short, they walk slowly, with a waddling gait, but can travel at a fair pace over snow or ice by falling forward on to their breasts, and propelling themselves with all four limbs.

To continue the sketch, I quote two other writers:

M. Racovitza, of the "Belgica" expedition, well describes them as follows:

"Imagine a little man, standing erect, provided with two broad paddles instead of arms, with head small in comparison with the plump stout body; imagine this creature with his back covered with a black coat ... tapering behind to a pointed tail that drags on the ground, and adorned in front with a glossy white breast-plate. Have this creature walk on his two feet, and give him at the same time a droll little waddle, and a pert movement of the head; you have before you something irresistibly attractive and comical."

Dr. Louis Gain, of the French Antarctic expedition, gives us the following description:

"The Adelie penguin is a brave animal, and rarely flees from danger. If it happens to be tormented, it faces its aggressor and ruffles the black feathers which cover its back. Then it takes a stand for combat, the body straight, the animal erect, the beak in the air, the wings extended, not losing sight of its enemy.

"It then makes a sort of purring, a muffled grumbling, to show that it is not satisfied, and has not lost a bit of its firm resolution to defend itself. In this guarded position it stays on the spot; sometimes it retreats, and lying flat on the ground, pushes itself along with all the force of its claws and wings. Should it be overtaken, instead of trying to increase its speed, it stops, backs up again to face anew the peril, and returns to its position of combat. Sometimes it takes the offensive, throws itself upon its aggressor, whom it punishes with blows of its beak and wings."

The Adelie penguin is excessively curious, taking great pains to inspect any strange object he may see. When we were waiting for the ship to fetch us home, some of us lived in little tents which we pitched on the snow about fifty yards from the edge of the sea. Parties of penguins from Cape Royds rookery frequently landed here, and almost invariably the first thing they did on seeing our tents, was at once to walk up the slope and inspect these, walking all round them, and often staying to doze by them for hours. Some of them, indeed, seemed to enjoy our companionship. When you pass on the sea-ice anywhere near a party of penguins, these generally come up to look at you, and we had great trouble to keep them away from the sledge dogs when these were tethered in rows near the hut at Cape Evans. The dogs killed large numbers of them in consequence, in spite of all we could do to prevent this.

Continue reading Antarctic Penguins: a Study of Their Social Habits free in the Wunder reader →