Saturday, December 13, 2014

Emperor Penguin Sighting

A late evening bit of excitement happened today. On the way home from a long day in the field at "Tall Tower" (a 100ft AWS station) we were treated to seeing an Emperor Penguin as we drove from Willey Field (the airport where the Twin Otter aircraft fly from) back to MacTown. I had really hoped to see an Emperor, but time was running out and the sea ice edge was still over 40km (25miles) away so it was exciting to actually see one. This penguin had gone for a long walk!


Inspecting the snow

Tasting the snow

A slow walk

Belly sliding! When sliding, the penguin moved faster than walking



The above video is best viewed here.

2 Comments:

At December 13, 2014 at 12:57 PM , Blogger Unknown said...

Maybe it went for too long a walk? Will it be able to make it again?

What is the reason for walking that far in the wrong direction?

 
At December 13, 2014 at 6:24 PM , Blogger Andrew Slater said...

I believe that Emperor penguins will walk 50-120km to breeding grounds so I suspect that this one will be OK. I'm not sure why this penguin walked all the way down to McMurdo.

 

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