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| The Adelie Penguins
were named by the French explorer, Dumont d'Urville, after his wife.
They frequently form large, noisy - and very smelly - rookeries on
exposed rocks. A distinctive 'urine' smell tends to waft across the
ocean when approaching a rookery. |
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Punk fur do
Devil Island
Of all the penguins, the Adelie had the most bizarre fur patterns
when they began to moult. This one was giving me a wild-eyed stare
as it shed its final ties to chickdom.
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Chick creche
Devil Island
Unlike the other penguins, the Adelie chicks will enter water in
search of food while experiencing their first moult. This isn't
a good survival strategy (although I guess if your parents have
abandoned you and you are hungry...) as the remaining down fills
up with air bubbles, makes it very hard for them to dive. Lurking
fur seals find them easy food if they venture into the water before
completing exchanging down for feathers.
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Adult Adelie Penguin
Brown Bluff
Just a nice shot of an adult Adelie...
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Feeding young
Yalour Island
As the chicks grow older and join up in creche's to await the return
of one of the parents, they will typically chase another penguin
for food. This means an adult penguin will runa round being chased
by 2-3 chicks. Eventually one (or two) of the chicks will drop off
and the remaining one will be its own chick (or chicks if they raised
two chicks) - and they get fed
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Moulting Adelie's
Devil Island
After raising chicks, the penguins go out to sea and eat a lot
off food in preparation for moulting. When they return, they don't
eat for about 2-3 weeks while they shed their old feathers and grow
new feathers (they are not waterproof during this phase). It is
very important not to cause the penguins to move in this phase as
they will be comsuming vital energy!
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