Professor Peter Barham, a physicist, gave us a very enjoyable talk on his favourite topic … penguins. Peter started with some basics; there are 18 species of penguins. As he gave us a few interesting points about each species of penguin, a life size stuffed toy of that species of penguin was brought out. By the end there was a table full of them, large and small. The species are:
- Emperor – the largest species at 80cm tall. In the last few years, 20 new colonies have been found via NASA satellites, as their poo discolours the ice!
- King – are sub Antarctic (but not in the Antarctic). Originally, their babies were thought to be a different species that at the time were called “woolly” penguins.
- Adelie – these are the classic cartoon diner jacket penguins. The females are the only birds that will prostitute themselves, as long as the male gives her small stones to add to and improve her nest!
- Gentoo – their colony moves every year, away from last year’s poo.
- Chinstrap – the fastest penguin at 40 km or 25miles/hour
- Macaroni – have long yellow spiky “eyebrows”. They were named after the 1770 Italian dandies from the “Macaroni club”
- Southern Rockhopper – hop up sheer cliffs
- Northern Rockhopper
- Fiordland – nest in a cold rainforest, so are difficult to find
- Snares – build their nest in trees (albeit that the trees are very small and stunted)
- Erect crested – lay 1 big and 1 small egg, but only raise 1 young
- Yellow eyed – from New Zealand. The oldest fossil evidence of penguins is of this species.
- Little penguin – only nocturnal penguin
- Humbolt – breeds in the Atacama Desert at temperatures of 40o Compare this with the Emperor that breeds at -40oC!
- Galapagos – only penguin that breeds north of the equator, albeit just 4 colonies a few miles north of the equator
- Magellanic – live in Argentina and Brazil
- African – will viciously defend themselves
Some penguin species are endangered due to their limited locations, such as the northern rockhoppers and erect crested, others due to habitat loss, such as the yellow eyed.
The penguin that Peter’s research concentrates on is the African penguin. Many other penguin species have also suffered similar declines. African penguin numbers were:
- Early 20th C millions of pairs
- 1956 0.3 million individuals
- 2023 fewer than 1000
- 2035 -2055 forecast to be extinct – unless we humans do something to conserve them
Some of the causes of the decline have been:
- 1800 -1940 Guano extraction. This is habitat loss as the penguins dig their nests into the guano.
- 1900-1946 Egg collection (to eat). Stopped when it became uneconomical. An Interesting fact; cooked penguin eggs have translucent albumen.
- 1950-2000 Oil spills, entanglement in fishing nets, pollution. The penguins that have been found have been cleaned and rehabilitated
- 2000-> Marine noise – eg ship engines and seismic surveys
- Predation – eg gulls take eggs and chick, and as there are so few eggs/chicks now, the losses are proportionately more; big cats on mainland; seals – a newly learnt behaviour since the 1960s,
- food availability – humans are overfishing where the penguins feed. Penguin population is proportional to the number of anchovies and sardines that they eat
- disease – avian flu, our intensive farming creates new diseases
What can we do to reverse this decline?
- Rehabilitation of sick and oiled birds. Raise and release abandoned eggs and chicks.
- Disease – monitor diseases, research cures and vaccines.
- Advocacy – set up (and protect) protected marine areas. Consider noise and pollution impacts of development projects.
- New colonies – create new colonies where the fish are. Attract penguins with calls and chicks. Create an island (where predators can’t get to them)
- Increase long term availability of fish by restricting fishing in some areas.
Overall, it was a rather depressing story.
Wendy Lefevre
