Visit to Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic Encounter & Underwater World... special report on PENGUINS!!

Brief summary about Kelly Tarlton's

Penguins - Gentoo and King, their similarities as well as differences

Penguins at Kelly Tarlton's vs NZ penguins

My coments about Kelly Tarlton's

References

(I'll add more pics soon)

Brief summary about Kelly Tarlton's

Into the lineup area I went. I saw some interesting information about ancestral penguins at the lineup - the biggest were 150cm tall and weigh 90kg!! Up on the wall was a TV screen where I saw a brief flash of penguins playing. Into the ticket reception area I went, where I was greeted by a gust of cold wind. Down the slop, the first thing I saw was a statue of an Antarctic explorer wearing animal skin clothes, with furry gloves, and skies. The face of the statue is blocked. The guy "looked" very cold indeed! There were some snow trucks displayed as well. Further down the slope was penguin viewing holes. That's where I observed the lovely penguins swim, and copied down information about the penguins. Then, further down, I went into the replica of Captain Scott's hut. Then into the viewing vehicles I went to view livepenguins. The vehicle smelt very fishy! And I got a much closer look at the penguins. After this I went into a place with many aquariums of fishes on display. One thing I noticed with most interest was the man eating fish, which can actually deflesh a cow in 5 minutes!! There's usually 300 of them in a school! I also went through the walk-through aquarium of NZ fishes. Seeing the fishes all over myself is an interesting experience. I remembered a sign earlier that said the "sharks aren't fed yet"!! Through the gift shop area I went, and I bought a book about penguins before going out. There was an octopus in the gift shop area. It was said to be a very smart animal (smarter than it looks).

Penguins (Gentoo and King)

There are two species of penguins at Kelly Tarlton's: The gentoo penguin (Pygoscelis papua) and the king penguin (Aptenodytes patagonica). The gentoo penguins are naturally found on Circumpolar regions (Falkland islands, Kerguelen Island, and Antipodes Island.) The king penguins are naturally found on Sub-Antarctic islands around the Southern Ocean (Falkland islands, South Georgia Island, Marion Island, Heard Island, Macquarie Island). The penguins prey on krills, fishes, and squid. Orcas and lion seals prey on penguins. Skuas, giant petrels prey on penguin eggs and chicks. Penguins drink sea water. They have two glands above their eyes to isolate the salt, which is excreted as brine through their nostrils. This explains why penguins often shake their heads - to clear brines. Penguins keep a constant body temperature of 37oC.

Similarities

These two species have many similarities. Physically, both species look alike in that they have unusual feathers that are stiff, short, and overlap tightly to form dense waterproof covering (they preen themselves regularly to spread the waterproofing oil). Underneath these feathers is a thick layer of downy feathers to retain warmth. Further underneath is insulating blubber and fat. Their body is a sleek, torpedo shape. 1Their body are similar in appearance from the head down - white on front (predators from below have difficulty distinguishing white underparts of penguins from ligh striking the surface of the water), and black on back (absorb warmth on their backs as they float). They molt their feathers regularly every 4-6 weeks. (I saw a few molting penguins at Kelly Tarltons. You gotta see them... they look so funny when they molt!!) There are three stages for the molting process : Premolt: they eat lots of food and gain 30% more weight. Feathers loosen: new feathers come through. Shedding: old feathers preened out by bird, new feathers visible. Penguins look scruffy, and become inactive when molting. Unlike flying birds which have hollow bones, penguins have robust bones. They have strong webbed feet with 3 toes and strong claws. Unlike ducks or geese, they float by rowing their flippers rather than padding with webbed feet. They swim at 18km/h, and porpoise just as dolphins do. They can dive very deep (265m) for long periods of time (5-7 minutes for a king penguin), and their large eyes enable them to see well under the cold water. As they dive, they flap their wings, and seemed like they were flying underwater. The penguins hop very high as they hop from water to land. On land, the penguins extend flippers backward for balance and move as fast as humans despite their clumsy walking (6km/h).

Differences

There are some significant physical differences between the two species of penguins. The king penguin belongs to the genus of Aptenodytes. Hence, its closest relatives are the emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri - also the genus Aptenodytes). Penguins of this genus are big. The king penguins is the second largest species of penguin. It stands at 65-70cm tall and weighs at 13.5-16kg. King penguins have vivid orange, teardrop-shaped ear patches. Their backs are silvery blue-grey. The upper breast is orange, shading downwards to yellow, and the rest of the front is white. King penguins have black feet and black beaks with an orange plate of horny material on their lower beak. The gentoo penguin belonds to the genus of Pygoscelis (stiff-tailed penguins). Hence its closest relatives are the Adelie penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae) and the chinstrap penguins (Pygoscelis antarctica). Gentoo penguins are smaller than king penguins. They stand at 50-55cm, and weigh 5.5-6.5kg. The northern gentoos are bigger than southern ones. They have distinctive markings of a white band that looks like a bonnet stretching from eye to eye, widest at the crown of the head. They have bright red-orange beaks and orange feet.

Behaviorally, there are also some differences between these two species of penguins. From Kelly Tarltons, I noticed that many gentoo penguins are very active. Many of them repeatedly dive and swim. Meanwhile, the king penguins had their heads tucked back and slept. It is said that gentoo penguins are the most timid of all penguins. Penguins make a variety of calls and displays during courship. The most famous call of all is the "trumpeting" of the king penguin. (I did hear some weird penguin calls there.) King penguins use no nests and lay only one egg. They lay eggs between late November and early March. Both parents incubate the egg they lay, which is a period of 53 days. The egg is balanced under the parent's feet under their brood pouch. Gentoo penguins use pebbles, rocks, bones, moss, seaweed, grass, twigs, etc to buid their nest. Males intiate the nest building. The birds mate in October and lay eggs in November. Both parents incubate the eggs they lay, which is a period of 35 days. There is great competition between teh two chicks of each breeding pair (ie. parent bird runs away, forcing the chicks to chase it to be fed), and usually only one survives (the stronger chick, usually the first chick). Penguins breed in large colonies.

Penguins at Kelly Tarlton's vs New Zealand Penguins

Penguins at Kelly Tarlton's and New Zealand penguins are very different. The penguins in Kelly Tarlton's are Antarctic species which could not be kept in NZ under natural conditions. The NZ penguins are temperate or subantarctic species. Many species of penguins belonging to the genus of crested penguins are in NZ. Crested penguins have short, heavy, orange-colored bills, red brown eyes, and unusual crests of bright yellow or orange plumes sprouting from their foreheads. Rare penguins such as the little (blue) penguins and the yellow-eyed penguins are also NZ species.

My Comments about Kelly Tarlton's

KTUW is indeed a useful place for Antarctic studies. I found the penguins section very interesting, and the aquariums were beautiful. Captain Scott's hut gave me a bit of insight to life in Antarctica (though the hut is of coruse, not as cold as it would have been!!) The place overall is kind of small. I think it would be better if the hut is really made as was, ie the roof, the outside, etc. More could also be added about other forms of life at the Antarctic. I believe they should make a movie theater-like place showing videos on life forms at the Antarctic. More high tech learning programs could be added, like computer aided learning of Antarctic animals. Some other forms of virtual games related to Antarctica could also be added, Other than virtual fishing. A video camera could be installed somewhere in Antarctica and be played live in Kelly Tarlton's. Overall, with our present technology, there are unlimited amounts of expansion for Kelly Tarlton's (as long as there is enough space).

References

I got most of my knowledge and data on penguins at Kelly Tarlton's. I read the book "Penguins: A Portrait of the Animal World" and got an overview of the penguins from there.

1 HASTINGS Derek (1997) pp11, Pengiuns: A Portrait of the Animal World, Smithmark, Singapore