Magnificent Magellanic Penguins

I think the penguins were worth every second of the 20 hours in a bus it took to get here and the 10:30 p.m. dinner (which I didn’t enjoy as much as I could’ve).  It was amazing looking behind you and seeing a mother feeding her baby then walking forward and almost step on a penguin crossing the path.  Even though the penguins squawk couldn’t have gotten more annoying, I still liked this experience even more than the glacier hike (read my brothers blog about that).

It took us a while to finally find the penguin preserve.  We were looking all over town to find a car rental and we were asking everyone where to find one, .  And once we found out where it was, we had to take a taxi to get to the rental (which happened to be at the airport).  This adventure made me question if it was worth it, and it was, but at least we got to get to know the place!  Before we explored the penguins, we were lead through a museum about them.  Not all of that was new for me, I did some research on my own.  Then we finally got to visit our penguins.  There were so many penguins!  We thought these were extremely social penguins.  There were penguin families everywhere without a care in the world, it was like we were invisible.  We thought the beginning was the best it was going to get, but we were wrong.

Everyone was so amazed when we saw the first penguin cross the path and we thought it was extremely rare to see something like that.  Not!!!  One of the park rangers suggested that my mom should slow down on her picture taking because the penguins are more numerous and more social later on, which shocked us, but she wasn’t lying.  When we finally got to the ocean, we saw how fast the penguins were riding the waves and I thought that no matter how long any surfer trained, they couldn’t beat those penguins.  Next we enjoyed the penguins slipping and face planting into the slippery rocks that lead back the their burrows, then we left the beach.  On our way back we stopped to take a “selfie” with penguins in the background and one came up to photobomb our picture.  He was really curious and tried to put just about everything in his mouth, he tried to eat the button on my mom’s pants and my hair.  Seeing those penguins was an experience I’ll never forget.

Some interesting facts I learned about these amazing creatures is that single male penguins sound like a donkey when looking for a mate and when they find a mate they stay with them for life.  We’ve experienced these donkey sounds first hand, it’s hilarious, it’s in the youtube video below.  Another cool fact I learned is that if Magellanic Penguins get too hot they will do some weird things.  They will shed some feathers around their beak, pant like a dog, and extend their flippers outward in the hopes of catching a breeze.  We were wondering why all of them were walking around like airplanes.  Everyone in my family agreed that the fact magellanic penguins search for food 620 miles from shore and dive down to as much as 75 meters was the most surprising and outstanding thing these penguins do.  It would take me my whole lifetime just to to that with scuba gear!  I loved these penguins so much I had to use up ½ of my energy trying to restrain myself from penguin-napping one and shipping it back to Colorado for when I return.

These penguins never cease to amaze me.  Did you know that ½ a million penguins come to visit this desert beach for ½ a year to lay their eggs?  They let their chicks grow until they’re ready to swim.  I don’t know why they chose a desert beach to stay at, maybe they just need a vacation from winter like we do.  I can’t wait to have more of these amazing animal experiences in other countries with their unique animals.  As much as I loved Magellanic Penguins, the Sea Lions (or as our family calls them, “Marine Wolves”) have got them beat.

Penguin ate my hair!

Fun Facts:

• Named Magellanic penguins after Ferdinand Magellan, who documented their existence first

• classed as a threatened species

• grow up to 76cm (30 inches) in height

• white and brownish black markings w/ a broad dark band running across the top of their white chest

• highly sociable

• carnivorous

• Oil spills are thought to be the biggest threat to the Magellanic penguin because it limits the available food supply and gets in their feathers reducing their insulation from the cold water

• exceptional swimmers

• Magellanic Penguins swallow too much ocean water, so they excrete the extra salt with special glands located near the eyes.

• Burrows are vulnerable to floods