The Takahe Stud Penguins equipped for harsh climates

Press, 8 July 1976, Page 11

The Takahe Stud

Penguins equipped for harsh climates

Have you ever wondered how penguins survive in winter? These

birds, which inhabit the Antarctic and other regions of the Southern Hemisphere, including New Zealand, are well equipped for living in harsh climates. They have layers of fatty tissue in their bodies which keep them warm in freezing weather, and their tight, little feathers help, too, for they are watertight. The Emperor Penguin, which lives and breeds in the Antarctic, lays its egg in the middle of winter. The males hold the eggs on top of their feet and keep them warm beneath a special fold in the skin of the belly. Penguins have powerful flippers in place of wings, very short legs, and webbed feet, and these equip them well for hunting fish, crabs, and squid. They can swim easily on the surface of the sea and even more rapidly beneath. They are also able to twist, turn, soar and glide in the sea, just as other birds make these movements in the air. Sometimes, too, penguins lie on the surface of the sea and push themselves along with their feet. Various types of penguins visit or live along our shores. Banks Peninsula is the breeding place of the little white-flip-pered penguins. They lay their eggs in spring, and their favourite nesting spots are caves and rocky crevices, although some penguins perfer burrows in soft sand. The baby whife-flip-pered penguins are covered in down at first and are very hungry. The parents feed them by regurgitating fish which they have swallowed when out fishing during the day. When the young ones are fully fledged, the old er birds begin to moult and remain on shore. After a fortnight or so, however, they are able to return to the sea to feed. Watch out for whiteflippered penguins this month at Lyttelton and

Akaroa harbours. Notice the continuous white patch above their tails and the large amount of white on their flippers. They will be feeding in these areas until they return to their nesting places to breed. I hope, too, that you see penguins on land some time as they are most amusing. They study their own bodies for a long time before preening, and even twist their heads round and solemnly examine behind their shoulders. And when they come out of the sea at night they look comically like men caught in a shower of rain. Their flippers hang dejectedly to their sides like arms, and they clamber and struggle up the banks, soaked and dripping wet.

TIKIMU starts a story in five parts today. It is called: