Happy Little Penguins on the March
South America is the home-sweet-home abode of over a million Magellanic penguins which breed along the southern coasts of Chile and Argentina as well as the Falkland Islands. In recent years these frisky, small-winged South American penguins have had happy feet and have been expanding northward in their own inimitable, plodding way. Outside of breeding season, some penguins' wander lust may take them as far north as southern Brazil or, on the opposite side of the continent, to Peru.
The Magellanic penguins were named after Ferdinand Magellan, who spotted the little penguin dickens while rounding the southern tip of South America in 1519 during the Spanish golden age of exploration and conquest-- which, happily, did not include the abuse or enslavement of the South American penguin population..
The Penguin Particulars
The industrious little Magellanic penguin builds its nest in a rocky burrow or, failing that, under the nearest handy bush. When Mama Penguin and Papa Penguin decide to have chicks, they will both share in the parental duties. The laying of two eggs in the nest is the norm. Allow up to 42 days to hatch. The young'uns stay in their nest for 29 days after hatching and are fed by their parents every two to three days during this time.
When the chicks reach the advanced age of 60 to 70 days old, they go to sea and, assuming they are endowed with the typical penguin instincts, can hunt for fish and suchlike on their own.
The typical adult Magellanic penguin is a towering 70 centimetres (27 inches) in height and weighs 4 kg (9 pounds). Though a shortcake by human standards, it is known as the largest warm-weather penguin.
They typically eat small fish from fish schools, squid, anchovies and sardines, for example.
Dressed to Kill: Is That a Butler or a Penguin?
Penguins, it has been said, look as though they are sporting a tuxedo. There's a wide strip of black under the chin of the Magellanic penguin, while another in the shape of an upside-down horseshoe can be found on the stomach. Their chests are white, with a scattering of black.
Does the Penguin Have Any Fiendish Arch Enemies?
As one might expect, the biggest threat to the Magellanic penguin is man and his oil spills and over-fishing. Though the penguin population on the South American mainland would appear to be more or less stable, life for the penguin is far more risky and fraught with peril on the Falkland Islands, where a large percentage of them have been caught in fish nets or else died because the fish they depend on are no longer there in abundance.
Penguins on Film
There has been a renaissance of interest in penguins in recent years, in part because of the success of films such as Penguins on the March and Happy Feet. Though there has been no known case of a penguin ever having tap-danced or boggied in an exaggerated and perhaps retarded way to bad music as in Happy Feet, they have been known to live, breed, care for their chicks, die and march exactly as depicted in the far more sensible and accurate Penguins on the March.
