Hey, here’s a little something to brighten your day. Did you know that this past December, two penguins named Pringle and Widget paid a little visit to a UK senior’s home to spread a little Christmas cheer? And you thought Christmas was reserved for reindeer! They dropped by for a day, spending time with various residents and bringing a lot of cheer to them and their families.
January 20, 2023 – Penguin Awareness Day
The Charm of Penguins
And who can blame the residents for being delighted? Everyone loves a penguin. They’re cute, smart and, in many ways, amazing. It’s safe to say that they’re one of the most beloved members of the avian kingdom. Here are some of the reasons why.
· They come in a wonderful array of shapes and sizes. The smallest is the Blue or Fairy Penguin who grow to about 30 cm (12 inches) tall and weighs around 1.5 kg (3 lbs.) The largest are the Emperor Penguins who can stand as tall as 1.3 m (4 ft) and weigh in at 40 kg (88 lbs.)
· As impressive as they are, they don’t begin to compare to their ancient ancestors. The fossil record shows us that, about 37 million years ago, penguins could grow to 2m (6.5 ft) and weigh over 200 kg (220 lb)! Yowtch!
· I recommend you pop by YouTube sometime and watch a video of penguins swimming. It’s like a great, underwater arial trapeze act.
· Their waddling gait has always left us believing that penguins can’t really walk. At least not well. But species have been known to walk and toboggan as much as 100 km (62 mi) to get where they’re going. When was the last time you took a stroll that long?
· If you boil one, of their unfertilized eggs, the rather than turning white, it actually becomes transparent. (But they’re also said not to taste so good.)
· They are absolutely death-defying divers. The Emperor Penguins in particular can dive as deep as 500 m (1600 ft) and stay down for as much as 20 minutes!
The Plight of the Penguin
There’s just everything to love about a penguin. So, it’s no wonder everyone is so concerned that there’s one death-defying stunt that they haven’t mastered: sharing a planet with us. Almost every species is on the decline, sometimes at terrible rates. One of the worst cases is the King Penguins of Île aux Cochons which is a barren little Island somewhere between Madagascar and the Antarctic. Recently, scientists have been trying to find out why approximately 90% of their population has vanished without a trace.
Well, it has an awful lot to do with the damage we’ve done to the polar ice caps. You see, Mother Nature has set up her domain in an incredible intricate and beautiful but finely balanced web of give and take. There’s a certain type of algae that grows on ice. This alga is a food source for a species of shrimp known as krill. The krill, in turn, are a food source for the penguins. As the ice at the bottom of the word melts, the algae have no place to thrive and so there is less and less available. With less algae to eat, there will also be fewer krill. With the krill stock declining, the penguins have a harder and harder time hanging on.
But the thing is, it works in the other direction, too. This is what we mean by a balance of give and take. The penguins are a food source for other animals such as sea lions and killer whales. If the penguins were to disappear, unless these other animals could adapt to eating something else, we would almost certainly see a decline in our ocean mammals, too. Which would, in turn, impact another species and another.
Celebrating Penguin Day
Numerous measures have been put in place to try and avert this fate, including laws prohibiting the hunting of any of the penguins or their eggs. (So, no hard boiling them to watch them go transparent, please.)
Another measure, and one you can participate in, is Penguin Awareness Day, sometimes known as National Penguin Day. Either way, it’s a day for you to have a little fun while acknowledging our little friends. How can you do that? Well, there’s all sorts of ways.
1. Wear something with a penguin on it. A shirt, a necklace, a pair of socks. Anything will do, really, so long as it shows your support of penguins.
2. Watch a movie or documentary that features penguins.
3. Visit the penguins at your local zoo or aquarium if you live in a place where that’s possible.
4. If you have kids, read about penguins together.
These are just some suggestions. I’m sure you have some good ideas yourself.
Saving the Penguins
But here comes the big question. What can we do to protect these precious wild creatures? Is it possible for an ordinary, everyday person to make a difference? Even if that person lives hundreds or thousands of miles away from the nearest wild penguin (which most of us do)? Yes! Here are a few ideas
1. Avoid one-time plastic products such as plastic cutlery, straws, shopping bags and six-pack rings, all of which pollute the ocean and pose a threat to the marine wildlife.
2. Make sure any seafood products you buy or order in a restaurant come only from environmentally safe fisheries.
But most importantly, make sure you’re continually learning about our beautiful wildlife and teaching others when you can. Because that’s the best way of all start protecting our wildlife. Embrace them!