Emperor penguins in Antarctica curious about making a friend
Monday, 30 October 2017
Maybe it was a relative? Maybe it would respond? Whatever the case, a flock of emperor penguins north of Scott Base inspected a long-distance photo lens.
The pod of seven penguins – tall, waddling, goofy and curious – could not get a response from the lens and moved on.
The march of penguins was spotted by Scott Base staff and visitors on a regular Sunday outing. Base business takes six days and on the seventh, recreations and tours are organised.
This Sunday, it was an eight-hour return trip to Captain's Scott's Terra Nova Hut at Cape Evans.
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Several hours into the journey, the driver of the leading Haaglund tracked vehicle spotted the gaggle of penguins and stopped the regulation 200 metres away. 'Be quiet and wait,' he advised. 'They'll come to us.'
The birds waddled our way.
Sometimes they tipped onto their stomachs and slid across the ice, a way of travelling called 'tobogganing'. About 15m away from a prone group of humans, the birds paused to check out the lens.
Stuff photographer Iain McGregor had been using a long distance lens on the posse but switched to a shorter lens as the flightless birds closed in. He then moved sideways for a better angle, leaving the long lens behind on the ice.
'I think they thought it was a lost or orphaned penguin,' McGregor said.
Emperor penguin sightings at this time of year on the ice-covered McMurdo Sound were not rare, said Rex Hendry, who has worked for Antarctica New Zealand at Scott Base 25 times in the last 38 years.
But this spring, the sea ice had broken up much sooner than usual and the ice edge was about 50 kilometres south of where it normally was at this time of year, Hendry said.
'That's reasonably unique.'
It followed that more emperors would be further south.
Emperor chicks have hatched and adult birds are away from the rookeries looking for food.
Later on Sunday, a second raft of emperors was spotted travelling in the same direction as the Haaglunds. The six birds appeared to hear the vehicles, executed a U-turn and walked and tobogganed back to inspect.
Emperor penguins are listed as 'near threatened' on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
The collective noun for a group of penguins moving across ice is a 'waddle'.
Stuff journalists Will Harvie and Iain McGregor are spending 10 days in Antarctica part of Antarctica New Zealand's community engagement programme, which allows New Zealand media, artists and other non-scientists to visit Scott Base to learn and report on the work of scientists on the ice.