South African penguin, spectacled, or donkey. African penguins: description of the species, habitat, interesting facts. Are penguins found in Africa?

Yellow-eyed penguins breed only in the third year; they live on average seven years, a few - twenty. When they molt, they don’t eat anything for three weeks and lose almost half of their 7-9 kilograms of weight. Penguins of other species nest on the islands around Antarctica.

The donkey penguin, with a white stripe from eye to eye across the back of its head, is famous for its loud, donkey-like cry and the mysterious property of its eggs: they cannot be hard-boiled and do not harden in boiling water. On islands where rabbits live, donkey penguins build nests from their bones and even from dried corpses.

Crested penguins of four species (yellow-haired, golden-haired, rock and thick-billed) wear over their ears long bunches yellow feathers. All of them, having raised their chicks, swim north for the winter: from the Antarctic islands to open ocean. More than two million of these penguins gather at nesting sites on Macquarie Island. 150 thousand of them are killed here every year for their fat.

“In the middle of the nest there is some strange device... This is an old press made of wood, which hunters once used to squeeze fat out of penguins... On Heard Island, industrialists, due to the lack of other fuel, used penguins to keep the fire going under large cauldrons in which they melted pieces of seal fat... Every morning they killed penguins in large quantities with clubs, they skinned them, sometimes from those still alive... and put them in nets as bait for lobsters. Others served as a means of entertainment. They were doused with kerosene and set on fire just for the pleasure of watching these living torches run in the evening in the dark!" (E. Aubert de la Rue)

King penguins hatch their chicks (once every year and a half) also on the islands around Antarctica. They do not know any nests: the egg is held on feathered paws, just like emperor penguins. They look like brothers, these “titled” penguins: the first is a slightly smaller copy of the second.

Emperor penguins have chosen a truly murderous habitat - Antarctica! In the snow, in winter, in severe frosts, sometimes 60 degrees, at hurricane wind hatch and raise chicks fairy birds. It has been experimentally proven that a twenty-degree frost with a wind of 110 kilometers per hour cools like a cold of minus 180 degrees. Only thick fat under the skin and almost complete drowsy immobility save penguins from death. And camaraderie helps: penguins stand close together in the snow, and neighbor warms neighbor.

“Having broken up in pairs, the lovers freeze next to each other for a long time, stretching out their flexible necks like a swan, and the gentle trills of their serenades do not cease day or night. Sometimes they, with their eyes closed, sit motionless opposite each other for hours” (I. Tsigilnitsky).

In Antarctic autumn, in April, penguins have weddings. Almost a month of courtship, mating calls and games, but the result is not as impressive as the time spent on it: one single egg. He is greeted with jubilation: they congratulate each other with joyful cries.

The female soon passes the egg from paw to paw to the male. You can’t even drop it on the snow: it will cool down and the spark of life in it will die. The male takes the egg not just, but with ceremonies; bows to the penguin, flaps its wings, shakes its tail, is very excited, cannot take its admiring gaze off the egg, gently touches it with its beak. But then he got some fun and rolled the egg onto his paws with his beak. Immediately it seemed to fall into a down pocket: into the fold of skin between the paws and belly of the penguin. It lies there and does not fall out, even if the male warming it walks and jumps, choosing a warmer place in the crowd of comrades, even if it scratches its head with one paw.

A responsible parent nurses the egg for two months until the chick hatches, and another month with the newly born offspring until it returns from long journey his wife.

Does the chick go hungry for a month? Hunger is absolutely contraindicated for a growing body: the father feeds the “baby” with milk. Avian, of course, like pigeons and flamingos. So you can call the imperial chick a baby without quotation marks! This “milk” (quotes are needed here, at least once) is a special juice that is produced by the stomach and esophagus of a penguin. A very nutritious juice: it contains eight times more fat than cow's milk- 28 percent, and proteins - ten times, up to 60 percent.

King penguins are very similar to emperor penguins. Eggs and chicks are held on the paws, covered with a ventral fold of skin. The birds are located at a certain distance from each other, which results in almost regular rows.

Where are mothers walking at this time? We went to the ocean, tens of kilometers away, or even a hundred. We finally reached unfrozen water and caught fish and squid there.

Adelie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae)

And so, in a solemn procession, they return, noticeably plumper, to the children and fathers, who have lost half their weight during a three- to four-month fast in the wind and frost: they “ate” or “drank” only snow. There is a great noise and scream over the nesting site, thousands of birds are worried, bowing, jumping with chicks on their paws. Many unfortunate misunderstandings happen before all the couples are reunited. Each female finds her own legal spouse and the native chick he saved. And each one brings about three kilograms of semi-digested food in the stomach. The chick immediately transfers to her paws and into her down pocket and for two or three weeks feeds on what the mother gives out in parts from her stomach, until the father returns from a trip to the sea. She feeds him almost every hour, so that soon the entire supply of food brought in her stomach is depleted. And the chick is growing well: by the time daddy arrives he has gained several kilograms. This means that the female also feeds the baby with bird's milk.

A five-week-old chick is no longer small, his “pocket” is cramped, and for the first time he steps on the snow with his untested paws. Hobble off into the " kindergarten"Hundreds of peers, tightly huddled together, stand in a dark crowd, and brother warms brother's sides. Adult penguins on all sides protect them with a protective rampart from the wind and from large gulls and petrels, which can beat small penguins to death.

Parents come and, in a shout and commotion, find their children among thousands of strangers. Only they are fed: the most voracious ones swallow 6 kilograms of fish at a time!

Five-month-old penguins no longer need parental care. Spring has arrived, followed by summer, the ice floes have melted and are crumbling: on them, graduates of penguin “kindergartens” are sailing for practice at sea. Adults also go there. At the end of December, where penguins “nested” during the long polar winter, it is empty. And there are 22 such places in Antarctica. In one colony, 50 thousand pairs hatch chicks. In all 22 there are about 300 thousand birds.

“When this clumsy, waddling creature, fleeing from pursuit, throws itself on its stomach and, pushing off with its flippers, slides along the ice, maneuvering between numerous cracks, it is almost impossible to catch up with it. Protecting itself from worst enemies Skuas, who steal eggs and immature chicks, the penguin uses its main weapon - flippers. A backhand blow to a leg shod in high boots or high boots is already sensitive. Needless to say, when such a blow lands on an arm unprotected by clothing, a dislocation or fracture is guaranteed” (I. Tsigilnitsky).

In Antarctica and on the islands closest to it, not in winter, but in the short polar summer, Adélie penguins raise their young. The miniature battery-powered radio transmitters with which researchers “tagged” these penguins told a lot of interesting things about the routes of their long-distance wanderings.

All winter they swim among the pack ice, 700 kilometers from their nesting sites and closer. Early spring- let's go! It is short among the Adelie penguins nesting on the islands. But many walk in long lines through the snow and ice of Antarctica, walk on crust and loose snowdrifts, roll down the slopes on their bellies, pushing themselves with their wings. Sometimes they walk hundreds of kilometers, guided by the sun! Two marching columns of penguins will meet in the endless snow, and there will be no end to the joy. They rush to their old nesting places, but do not spare time for friendly greetings: they stand for minutes, mingling in a noisy crowd, shouting, raising their beaks to the sky. And again we go on a hike.

We reached our old native places (how do they find them in the monotonous snow?). Three weeks until the sun melted the snow, they mating games and courtship. Old spouses, when they meet, easily recognize each other. If one of them is late, arrives later, and the previous partner has already “wooed”, the new alliance is immediately terminated.

Males and females of Adélie are in identical outfits: how do you know who to look after, who is the female? The method is this: bachelor males collect pebbles and give them to prospective ladies, placing their collections at their feet. If the gift is accepted, it means that the donor was not mistaken: in front of him is the one he was looking for, and the piles of pebbles now serve as an application for the nest. Then they build the nest itself and surround the hole with a small rampart of stones. You need to keep a close eye on the pile of stones: your neighbors are stealing. Inexperienced males build a nest from several large stones. It will be very uncomfortable to sit in it later.

At Adele, the males hatch chicks: they incubate the eggs for 33-38 days, only eating snow. And the females hunt at sea at this time. (According to other sources, females in places where the path to the sea is not far also incubate a little.) Silvery, later dirty-brown chicks gather in “kindergartens”.

“The chicks stared at me with black, expressionless eyes, then touched the soles of their boots with their beaks and moved closer, as if leaning their bodies against my feet. At this very time, an attentive observer, an adult penguin, separated from the herd. He hurriedly approached and pushed the penguins with his moire belly , snapped his beak menacingly in my direction. And then he spread his wings and, using them like hands, drove both kids into the herd with slaps" (V. Nikolaev).

In February - March, when emperor penguins head from sea to land, nine-week-old Adélies without their parents make their way back to the sea and pack ice.

Literature: Akimushkin I.I. Animal World (Bird Tales)/Eureka Series; Artists A. Bloch, B. Zhutovsky - Moscow: Young Guard - 1971, p.384

(also known as donkey penguin, or black-footed penguin, or African penguin(lat. Spheniscus demersus)) is a species of penguin from the genus Spectacled Penguin. Like any other penguin, the spectacled penguin cannot fly.

Appearance

Spreading

The cries of penguins resemble those of donkeys. A penguin lives 10-12 years, females usually begin to give birth at 4-5 years. The clutch consists of two eggs, which are incubated by both parents in turn for about 40 days. The chicks are covered with brownish-gray down, later with a bluish tint. The breeding season is not clearly defined and varies depending on the location.

Causes of disappearance and protection

Gallery

Spectacled penguin I.jpg

Spectacled penguin at the Moscow Zoo

Spectacled Penguin II.jpg

Spectacled Penguin III.jpg

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Notes

Literature

Beycek V., Stastny K. Birds. Illustrated encyclopedia. - M.: Labyrinth-press, 2004. - 288 p.
Koblik E. A. Variety of birds. Part 1. - M.: Moscow University Publishing House, 2001.
Animal life. In 7 volumes. T. 6. Birds. - M.: Education, 1986. - 527 p.

Links

in the International Red Book
, - spectacled penguin in the Krasnoyarsk Zoo

An excerpt characterizing the Spectacled Penguin

Consequently, it was only necessary for Metternich, Rumyantsev or Talleyrand, between the exit and the reception, to try hard and write a more skillful piece of paper, or for Napoleon to write to Alexander: Monsieur mon frere, je consens a rendre le duche au duc d "Oldenbourg, [My lord brother, I agree return the duchy to the Duke of Oldenburg.] - and there would be no war.
It is clear that this was how the matter seemed to contemporaries. It is clear that Napoleon thought that the cause of the war was the intrigues of England (as he said this on the island of St. Helena); It is clear that it seemed to the members of the English House that the cause of the war was Napoleon’s lust for power; that it seemed to the Prince of Oldenburg that the cause of the war was the violence committed against him; that it seemed to the merchants that the cause of the war was the continental system that was ruining Europe, that it seemed to the old soldiers and generals that main reason there was a need to use them in action; legitimists of that time that it was necessary to restore les bons principes [ good principles], and to the diplomats of that time that everything happened because the alliance of Russia with Austria in 1809 was not skillfully hidden from Napoleon and that memorandum No. 178 was awkwardly written. It is clear that these and countless, infinite number of reasons, the number of which depends on the countless differences in points of view, it seemed to contemporaries; but for us, our descendants, who contemplate the enormity of the event in its entirety and delve into its simple and terrible meaning, these reasons seem insufficient. It is incomprehensible to us that millions of Christian people killed and tortured each other, because Napoleon was power-hungry, Alexander was firm, the politics of England was cunning and the Duke of Oldenburg was offended. It is impossible to understand what connection these circumstances have with the very fact of murder and violence; why, due to the fact that the duke was offended, thousands of people from the other side of Europe killed and ruined the people of the Smolensk and Moscow provinces and were killed by them.
For us, descendants - not historians, not carried away by the process of research and therefore contemplating the event with unobscured common sense, its causes appear in innumerable quantities. The more we delve into the search for reasons, the more of them are revealed to us, and every single reason or a whole series of reasons seems to us equally fair in itself, and equally false in its insignificance in comparison with the enormity of the event, and equally false in its invalidity ( without the participation of all other coincident causes) to produce the accomplished event. The same reason as Napoleon’s refusal to withdraw his troops beyond the Vistula and give back the Duchy of Oldenburg seems to us to be the desire or reluctance of the first French corporal to enter secondary service: for, if he did not want to go to service, and the other would not, and the third , and the thousandth corporal and soldier, there would have been so many fewer people in Napoleon’s army, and there could have been no war.
If Napoleon had not been offended by the demand to retreat beyond the Vistula and had not ordered the troops to advance, there would have been no war; but if all the sergeants had not wished to enter secondary service, there could not have been a war. There also could not have been a war if there had not been the intrigues of England, and there had not been the Prince of Oldenburg and the feeling of insult in Alexander, and there would not have been autocratic power in Russia, and there would not have been the French Revolution and the subsequent dictatorship and empire, and everything that produced French revolution, and so on. Without one of these reasons nothing could happen. Therefore, all these reasons - billions of reasons - coincided in order to produce what was. And, therefore, nothing was the exclusive cause of the event, and the event had to happen only because it had to happen. Millions of people, having renounced their human feelings and their reason, had to go to the East from the West and kill their own kind, just as several centuries ago crowds of people went from East to West, killing their own kind.

The harshest continent on the planet is Antarctica. These flightless birds are adapted to living in cold climatic conditions. However, there are certain species in the world that live far beyond South Pole. These include the African penguin of the spectacled genus. Like other representatives of this species, the bird is flightless.

Description

The African penguin is one of the largest representatives of its genus. In Latin it is known as Spheniscus demersus. It is also often called the donkey, black-footed and spectacled penguin.

The birds are very large in size. Their height can reach 70 cm, while their body weight ranges from 3-5 kg. The appearance is practically no different from its closest relatives: the back is painted black and the chest is white. Distinctive feature Spectacled penguins have a peculiar horseshoe-shaped pattern. A narrow black stripe runs along the top of the bird's chest and down the sides of the body to the legs. According to scientists, there are no completely identical drawings; they are as unique as human fingerprints.

By appearance Males and females are difficult to distinguish, since their coloring is very similar. However, adults of different sexes can be identified by size. Males are slightly larger than their partners.

The bird's beak is pointed. It is colored black and has white markings. One more distinctive feature African penguins - the presence of pink glands that are located above the eyes. These organs help the bird not to overheat in such hot climates. In hot weather, blood flow to the glands increases, causing them to become brighter in color, and the surrounding air cools them.

The penguin's legs are painted black.

Habitat

Many nature lovers will be interested to know where the spectacled penguin lives. These birds are common in coastal areas southwestern Africa, they also settled on 24 islands located in Atlantic Ocean, between Algoa Bay and the state of Namibia. There are 27 penguin colonies in these regions. At the beginning of the 20th century, the bird population was very large - there were at least 2 million individuals. Nowadays, things are very dire; penguins in Africa are on the verge of extinction. According to 2015 estimates, the number of birds ranges from 140 to 180 thousand individuals. Today, these penguins are protected; they are listed in the Red Book of the Republic of South Africa.

Penguin Enemies

In the wild, these birds have several main enemies. In the depths of the sea, danger comes from fur seals and the main predators of the depths - sharks. But the enemies of African penguins live not only in water. On land, many dangers await them, and most of all the threats arise for the future generation of birds. Sea gulls and ibises prey on eggs and newborn chicks. Leopards are especially dangerous various types snakes and mongooses.

But, despite so many enemies, it was people who caused the greatest harm to the penguins of Africa. They not only used bird eggs for food, but also destroyed their habitat.

Bird lifestyle

The penguin's main food is seafood. Their diet mainly consists of fingerling herring, sardines and anchovies. Average duration The lifespan of birds is 10-12 years. The female produces her first offspring when she reaches 4-5 years of age. There can be 2 eggs in one clutch. Not only the female, but also the male is involved in incubating the chicks. For 40 days they take turns monitoring the clutch.

The chicks that are born have gray-brown down, which over time acquires a bluish tint.

On the verge of death

This species of penguin is on the verge of extinction primarily due to humans. A sharp decline in the population occurred at the beginning of the last century. In the 1920s, the bird population on Dassen Island alone was about 1.5 million individuals. The decline in the number of penguins was due to record collections of their eggs. For approximately 30 years (from 1900 to 1930), 450 thousand eggs were seized annually. But the record year was 1919. Up to 600 thousand eggs were collected.

In 1956, the number of penguins decreased sharply, there were no more than 145 thousand individuals, and already in 1978 their number decreased to 22.4 thousand. The birds became endangered, so they were listed not only in the Red Book of South Africa, but also in international. Today the picture has improved somewhat, and the number of birds has increased slightly, but it is very far from the figures that occurred at the beginning of the 20th century.

Interesting facts about African penguins

Penguins living on the coast of South Africa can be called homebodies. They do not lead a nomadic lifestyle, like some of their relatives, but prefer to stay in the places they have chosen.
African penguin habitats have declined significantly due to... coastline densely populated by people.
In 2000, an emergency occurred - a huge oily slick formed off the coast of South Africa due to an oil spill. Volunteer teams were created to save birds. People collected birds stained with oil and washed them.
In 1978, this bird species was on the verge of extinction. The number of penguins has decreased to 22.4 thousand individuals.
The cry of this bird is very similar to the sounds made by a donkey, which is why they are often called donkey penguins.
Penguins are truly record holders. They are capable of diving to a depth of 100 m, accelerating in water up to 20 km/h and even holding their breath for several minutes.
One interesting case occurred in Tbilisi in 2015: an African penguin covered a distance of about 60 km, escaping from a zoo when flooding hit the region.

Class - Birds / Subclass - New palates / Superorder - Penguinaceae

History of the study

The spectacled penguin, or donkey penguin, or black-footed penguin (lat. Spheniscus demersus) is a species of bird from the spectacled penguin genus.

Spreading

The distribution area is the coast of South Africa and Namibia and nearby islands in the area of the cold Benguela Current. Lives in colonies. Today the population is estimated at 140-180 thousand individuals. Moreover, in the 1900s the population was estimated to be at least 2 million individuals.

Appearance

The spectacled penguin (Spheniscus demersus) is comparable in size to the Magellanic and Humboldt penguins. Its length, on average, is 68 cm, and its weight is 2.1-3.7 kg. Males are slightly larger than females. They also have a taller bill, but the differences are clearly visible when the birds stand side by side. Spectacled penguins are black above and white below. They have a narrow black horseshoe-shaped stripe on their chest, which goes down the sides of the body to the paws. Some birds have a double stripe, like the Magellanic penguin. Besides, white stripe goes around the back of the head and cheeks and then goes forward to the eyes and further in the direction of the beak, but does not reach the beak.

Reproduction

The nesting period of the spectacled penguin is extended. In most colonies, birds at any stage of the nesting cycle can be found throughout the year. However, there are still some regional differences: peak breeding in Namibia occurs in November-December, while in South Africa– for March-May. Spectacled penguins are monogamous and the same pair will usually return to the same colony and nest. 80-90% of pairs remain together for the next breeding season. There are cases where partners stayed together for more than 10 years. The clutch consists of 2 eggs. Both parents alternately incubate her for 40 days. The duration of partner changes depends on feeding conditions and averages 2.5 days. Both parents take care of the chicks, and for the first 15 days, until thermoregulation is established, one of them constantly warms the chicks. Further, up to a month of age, while the chicks are still small and one of the parents protects them from attack by seagulls. After this, both parents can go to sea to feed the chicks. At this time, the penguin chicks form “nurseries”, which serve mainly to protect them not from predation by gulls, but from attacks from adult birds. "Fledglings" leave the colony at the age of 60-130 days. The duration of the nesting period, the weight of fledglings, and the productivity of the breeding season depend on the availability and quality of food. After leaving the colony, young birds become independent. They spend 12-22 months at sea, after which they return to their home colony, where they molt into adult plumage.

Lifestyle

Penguins in water can reach speeds of up to 20 km/h, dive deeper than 100 m and hold their breath for 2-3 minutes. During feeding they can swim 70-120 km in the ocean. They feed mainly on small fish (fry of herring, anchovies, sardines, etc.). The main enemies are humans, sharks, seagulls (for chicks), fur seals(as a competitor for prey and as a predator) and feral cats (for chicks and eggs in some colonies).

Nutrition

Spectacled penguins feed mainly on pelagic schooling fish species, such as anchovies, sardines, as well as mollusks and crustaceans.

Number

The species is listed in the International Red Book. On at the moment There are 27 spectacled penguin colonies, of which only three are on the mainland coast. And in another 10 places the birds no longer nest, although they nested there before. Currently, the world population is about 70,000 pairs, but this is only 10% of what it was in 1900, when on only one island. About 1.5 million birds nested in Dassin. By 1956 The penguin population halved, followed by a further halving in numbers by the late 1970s, when about 220,000 adult birds were counted. By the end of the 1980s. the number dropped to 194 thousand individuals, and in the early 1990s. it amounted to 197 thousand adult birds. By the end of the 1990s. the number began to increase slightly and in 1999 reached 224 thousand individuals. The reasons for this decline in the number of spectacled penguins are well known. At first, this was caused by the extraction of birds and their eggs for food, as well as the collection of guano in their colonies. Currently, the main threats come from commercial fishing and oil pollution. Penguins also compete for food and breeding sites with fur seals, whose numbers have increased manifold in recent decades. To top it off, fur seals also hunt penguins. Feral cats are also becoming a problem in some colonies. Spectacled penguin eggs and chicks are eaten by kelp gulls and sacred ibises; on mainland penguin colonies, mongooses, genets and leopards eat them.

It is the only representative of the large penguin family that has settled in southwest Africa. They settle on the coasts in colonies. Its body length is 60–70cm, weight 2–5kg. Females are slightly smaller than males. Belly, chest white, back, head and paws are black.

Short feathers fit tightly to each other, protecting the skin from getting wet, heat and hypothermia. Of course, everyone knows that penguins don't fly. But they are excellent swimmers and divers; they can survive under water without air for up to 3 minutes, while diving to a depth of 30 - 100 m. While swimming, it reaches speeds of up to 20 km/h, jumps out of the water and dives again.

He has a streamlined body, strong wings with which he pushes off, and his paws act as a rudder. On land, they waddle awkwardly, stepping with webbed paws. Spectacled penguins feed on small fish, such as anchovies, sardines, and fish fry. They hunt for crustaceans and mollusks.

His most formidable enemies are humans, mongooses, leopards and seagulls, and ibises. People collect eggs and feed on them, while predators also feast on the chicks.

Penguins nest in rocky areas. Sometimes they dig holes, but more often they use small holes hidden by vegetation. Having formed a couple, they remain faithful to each other for life. They return from the sea to their previous nesting site; if the meeting does not take place due to the death of a partner, then a new companion can be found. Typically, the female lays two eggs.

Parents take turns incubating their offspring for 40 days. The newly born chick climbs onto the paws of its mother or father. The first two weeks he is in dire need of protection and warmth, and of course food. The little penguin is dressed in gray and white fluff. At about a month of age, the chicks form a nursery, huddled together. Now the parents are more free and go for feeding 100 or more kilometers from the coast.

The babies molt and get stronger, leave the colony at 3-4 months of age, now they are independent and independent - they get their own food and defend themselves. They will stay at sea for 10 to 22 months, then return to where they were born. Before molting, adult individuals swim in the sea for a month, intensively eating and getting fat. They need to survive for 20 days, which is how long the molt lasts. Losing weight, they will wait until their plumage is completely restored and then go back to sea.