Every Day Is Special: penguins

Showing posts with label penguins. Show all posts

April 25 - World Penguin Day

Posted on April 25, 2022

This is an update of my post published on April 25, 2011:

On (or around) April 25 each year, the Adelie penguins of Ross Island begin a great northward migration.

Or maybe a not-so-great migration. First, since they cannot fly, they waddle to the water and then swim. Second, they only swim a few hundred miles before they stop at the Balleny Islands. There they start feeding on krill and other seafood—and they stay there all winter long.

(Remember, other than zoo penguins, penguins only live in the Southern Hemisphere. They are enduring the shorter and colder days of autumn right now, heading toward winter, while most of us are enjoying spring and heading toward summer.)

Someone decided to mark the starting day of the Adelie's annual migration as World Penguin Day. Even though most penguins migrate—some mostly waddling to and from breeding grounds, and others mostly swimming—and most penguins have different schedules and routes—celebrating all penguins today is a great idea!

Most zoos and aquaria don't have penguins -
but they are very popular at those locations that do!

So...Celebrate!

Wear black and white today.

Here is an entire blog about penguins.

Do a jigsaw puzzle of a penguin.

Print out some pictures of penguins to color or do dot-to-dot.

Kid Zone has other penguin activities and info pages—plus a nice slide show (click “Penguin Photos”).
Penguins are one of the most popular
bird species for plushies!

Also on this date:

DNA Day

Anzac Day

Astronaut Frank De Winne's birthday

Anniversary of the first seeing-eye dog in the U.S.

Liberation Day in Italy

Freedom Day in Portugal

National Flag Day in Eswatini (formerly Swaziland)

Flag Day in Faroe Islands

License Plate Day

Sham el-Nessim in Egypt
(Date varies with Easter)

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

December 1 – Antarctica Day

Posted on December 1, 2016

This is pretty cool – a website called Our Spaces, from the Foundation for the Good Governance of International Spaces, has some resources to help you celebrate the scientific under-wonder-world shared by all humans: Antarctica!

Notice that there is a PDF available for download called “Celebrating Antarctica,” with illustrations from kids around the world. There is also a film with the same title. On the left side is a link to the “Kid's Area,” with fun facts and a game.

Antarctica is the coldest, driest, windiest, iciest, southernmost, and least diverse (livings things) place on Earth. Here are some specifics:

Coldest – a record cold of -128 degrees F (-89 C)
Driest – Dry Valleys, Antarctica, has low humidity and almost no snow or ice
Windiest – on average, with some winds reaching 200 mph (320 km/h)
Iciest – the Antarctic Ice Sheet is the largest single mass of ice in the world – and 99% of the continent is covered by ice!

The average thickness of the ice sheet is about 1 mile!
Most of the world's freshwater ice (90%) and a majority of the world's fresh water (70%) is found here
Most of the living things are found in the waters surrounding the continent, with some time spent on the coasts. This includes 8 species of penguins, 7 species of seals and other pinnipeds, and a few invertebrates (animals without backbones). Flying birds nest on the milder shores of the Antarctic Peninsula and subantarctic islands, where some plants grow and other small invertebrates such as beetles and flies In addition to these, smaller creatures exist:

When we think of Antarctica, we think
of funny-and-lovable penguins.

Although there are only 8 species of penguins
there, a lot of individual penguins live there
(see the black dots below!).

land mollusks
wingless midges
earthworms
micro-invertebrates such as nematodes and rotifers
some snow algae
bacteria that revive after long periods (centuries!) of being frozen
about 1,150 species of fungi, almost all microscopic
mosses and lichens

Also on this date:

Advent begins

Freedom and Democracy Day in Chad

National Holiday in Romania

Skywarn Recognition Day

Rosa Parks Day

Portugal's Restoration of Independence Day

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest pages on:

December holidays
December birthdays
Historical anniversaries in December

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

October 17 – African Penguin Awareness Day

Posted on October 17, 2015

According to the Facebook page for this event, only 2% of the endangered African penguin population remains, at least in the wild. Most of them live along the eastern cape of South Africa. Events being held in South Africa today include educational talks but also carnival activities like face painting and henna tattoos, a treasure hunt and a snake show, jumpers and rides and game booths, and of course lots of fun food fare. The funds raised go to saving the endangered birds!

There is also an informational event focusing on African penguins at the Six Flags Discovery Kingdom half a world away, near San Francisco, California! Perhaps, indeed, there is an event near you?!

The African penguin makes a funny donkey-like sound, has cute pink patches of skin above the eyes and black face-mask feathers, and has the penguin's characteristic cute waddle on land but fast-and-flawless “flight” through the water. It's around two feet (60 – 70 cm) tall.

The African penguin is endangered because people have been collecting their eggs and harvesting their guano (poop), but also because humans have been disturbing their habitat – oil spills and overfishing and climate change...

...Sigh!

I always wonder what hope there is for endangered animals in general when even super “cute,” charismatic, popular animals like penguins teeter on the edge of extinction!

Apparently the seemingly random black
spots help to identify the individual -
they are as distinctive as fingerprints!

Notice that some penguins' pink eye patches
are brighter than others. Apparently, these special
glands get pinker when the temperatures go
up, because more blood goes to the glands
to be cooled.

This African penguin is shown with chicks, which
don't yet seem to have active pink glands...?

Find out more about African penguins with this video!

Also on this date:

Paul Bert's (“Father of Aviation Medicine”) birthday

Astronaut Mae Jemison's birthday

Black Poetry Day

Mulligan Day

Bridge Day

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

November holidays
November birthdays
Historical anniversaries in November

January 20 – Penguin Awareness Day

Posted on January 20, 2014

The folks at Sea World called for a day to learn about, work on behalf of, and appreciate penguins. Since I just focused on the Arctic (Northern polar region) polar bears a mere two days ago, I think it is a wonderful idea to focus on the Antarctic (Southern polar region) penguins today!

Of course, penguins don't live just in the polar regions. As a matter of fact, of the 17 species of penguins, only 6 can be found in Antarctica. However, all penguins in the wild live in the Southern Hemisphere.

I just went to the Aquarium of the Pacific (in Long Beach, CA) yesterday, and they have a charming exhibit chock full of Magellanic penguins, which live in the waters of South America, from Argentina and Chile, in the south, sometimes going north as far as Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. These guys mate for life! They live and hunt in large flocks, but when it is breeding season, the males scuttle back to their burrows from the previous year and wait there for their partners to return.

They are pretty much the cutest creatures on the planet!

Scientists are concerned that Antarctic species such as the emperor penguin may become extinct because of global climate change and the loss of sea ice. In 2012 researchers were ecstatic to find a thriving colony of about 9,000 emperors in a remote location—but that doesn't remove the very real danger these magnificent creatures face.