Chapter 10: Oh my God, Penguins!

There are few moments in life, when your heart beat stops and thumps at the same time. Your heart beats in your mind but you don’t breathe. No, its not called death. Its called Wonder. The early explorers had many such wondrous moments but the modern human has forgotten to wonder. To most of us, nothing surprises us anymore. We have had way too much exposure to understand and feel the wonders of discovery.

I woke up next morning to an excited voice on the sound system announcing a school of whales swimming with the ship and its not to be missed. By the time I made my way to the deck, the whales had disappeared but we were docked at Danco Island surrounded by ice capped peaks on all four sides. The whites were interspersed with few patches of black showing the beauty in the imperfection. This was the Antarctica of my dreams. My heart filled with a joy it has not known. I finished the breakfast in a jiffy and jumped on to the zodiac on my group call. It was a sunny day with a bite in the winds and this time, I was better prepared.

We landed to the welcoming sight of a Gentoo penguin colony. The true inhabitants of the Antarctica. It is a common question to ask while in the midst of a penguin colony..”Where are the birds?”. Penguins are flightless birds and watching them walk on their two tiny feet one might easily ignore them as “birds”. Antarctica is home to almost all species of penguins except one. The largest one being Emperor penguins and smallest being Little Blue penguin. Penguins live around Antarctica throughout the year. In summers they come on land to breed and in winters they swim in the seas and settle on floating ice shelves.

Penguins usually breed in large colonies which vary in size from as few as a 100 pairs to several hundred thousand. Living in colonies means very high social interactions between the birds, which leads to visions of grand scale and a cacophony of sounds added with a peculiar stench generated from the penguin poop called guano.

Penguins breed for life. They search for same mate every year to mate but if they don’t find their mates, they are easy enough to move on. Penguins usually lay one brood except some smaller species which lay two. Mostly the responsibility of nurturing the egg is divided amidst the parents. As snow melts in the top part of the mountains earlier, these tiny penguins hike on their small two feet creating what is called the “penguin highways” on ice. Its not an easy task. They are very busy picking one stone at a time from the base of the mountain and hiking all the way up to the top to create their breeding nests avoiding seals and protecting their young ones from the Skua. They do this on repeat loop.

Many say that penguins are not afraid of humans. My take is that they just don’t have the time. They treat humans just as a busy mom treats a thrown pencil on the floor. They don’t care about the photo opportunities that humans look for or the fact that the humans have come from so far to meet them. We are unwanted guests and they have far more important tasks to achieve. It’s fascinating watching their social interactions, movements and playful antics in land and water.

A lot of penguins were also shedding their feathers, a process calling molting. Most penguin species molt completely once every year, usually after breeding season. This is a very uncomfortable time for them as they itch a lot. We were duly reminded to respect their privacy and be tolerant of their behavior.

Nature has its unique way of balancing things. If penguins were allowed to breed unmitigated, the earth would soon be full of them. So this balance is restored by Giant Skuas, Seals and Killer Whales who feed on the penguins. We did see one hunt between a seal and a Penguin which was eventually won by the seal, it was not an easy task. Penguins are very swift in water and killer whales too need to play group hunts to get their feed.

Having spent a good amount of time on the land observing these birds, I felt overwhelmed. As a modern human I am used to getting things at a click. Here, in the penguin kingdom, everything comes with struggle. Nobody takes extra, nobody gets extra. Whenever the balance tilts, more predators step in to set the balance correct. We humans exploded on the earth at a far higher pace than nature could adapt to. Does this mean we would go unchecked? If nature and its laws stand correct, then No. Balance is the key in nature and everything hinges on it. With this learning sinking in, my privileged ego of being a human was busted and I felt very small coming back to my ship for the nights rest.