Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of I Heart Radio, Hey
Speaker 1: Brainstuff Lauren vog Obam Here. Penguins are fascinating birds. There
Speaker 1: are up to twenty six different species in the wild.
Speaker 1: They all live in the Southern Hemisphere on four continents, Africa,
Speaker 1: South America, Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica, typically places where
Speaker 1: the water is very cold, though there is an exception.
Speaker 1: The endangered Galapagos penguin lives in the Galapcos Archipelago, which
Speaker 1: is right on the equator. Penguins can survive they're typically
Speaker 1: icy waters thanks to their feathers. But we spoke with
Speaker 1: Jen O'Dell, a curator of Mammals and Birds of the
Speaker 1: Georgia Aquarium and part of the team that cares for
Speaker 1: the aquarium's flock of African penguins as She explained that
Speaker 1: African penguins in particular having incredibly small feathers, and that
Speaker 1: there are lots of them, about eight thousand, two hundred
Speaker 1: feathers per square inch. That number will vary according to
Speaker 1: the penguins species and size, but she said their feathers
Speaker 1: act like a barrier to the water they're swimming in.
Speaker 1: The feathers are important to their survival because they're swimming
Speaker 1: in really cold water. If they didn't have that barrier,
Speaker 1: they wouldn't survive. In addition to the density of the feathers,
Speaker 1: penguins also use oil from a gland sometimes called a
Speaker 1: pren gland, located at the base of their tail to
Speaker 1: waterproof their feathers when they preen themselves with their beaks.
Speaker 1: In combination, these two features allow penguins to swim without
Speaker 1: the water ever actually touching their skin. This is especially
Speaker 1: important because penguins spend most of their lives in the water.
Speaker 1: That's where they find their food. The only time they're
Speaker 1: on land is when they're molting or breeding and raising
Speaker 1: their young. But like other birds, they don't keep a
Speaker 1: single set of feathers forever. Every year, penguins go through
Speaker 1: what's called the catastrophic malt. Why catastrophic Imagine having to
Speaker 1: go through an annual life cycle where you double your weight,
Speaker 1: lose all the hair on your body, and then grow
Speaker 1: all new hair. That's what penguins do every year. Odell explained.
Speaker 1: The catastrophic malt is a two and a half week
Speaker 1: process during which they lose all their feathers and grow
Speaker 1: new ones back. It's a natural thing they go through,
Speaker 1: but it is physiologically stressful. In advance of malting, they
Speaker 1: will come close to doubling their body weight because they
Speaker 1: won't swim or hunt that way. During the time when
Speaker 1: they're losing their feathers and growing them back, they've got
Speaker 1: enough reserves to get them through. O'Dell says molting typically
Speaker 1: happens around the same season each year for African penguins,
Speaker 1: with some outliers. She said, you can probably find a
Speaker 1: molting penguin at any time of year, but the majority
Speaker 1: will molt with the rest of the flock. By the way,
Speaker 1: a group of penguins in the water is sometimes called
Speaker 1: a raft, while a group of penguins on land is
Speaker 1: sometimes called a wattle. Other collective nouns for penguins include rookery, colony,
Speaker 1: and huddle. Penguins are social animals. Most penguins will breed
Speaker 1: monogamously for life and return to the same breeding place. However,
Speaker 1: O'Dell says that she and other researchers have seen mated
Speaker 1: pears split up and form new pairs for no discernible reason.
Speaker 1: African penguins typically lay two eggs that are incubated for
Speaker 1: about forty days. Males and females are both engaged in
Speaker 1: the incubating, tending and feeding the chicks after they hatch.
Speaker 1: Most penguins do not balance the eggs on top of
Speaker 1: their feet while incubating, as seen in the movie March
Speaker 1: of the Penguins. That's something done primarily by Emperor penguins.
Speaker 1: Because of the brutal Antarctic cold. Other penguin species may
Speaker 1: build a burrow or scrape together nesting material rocks, mud sticks,
Speaker 1: or grasses where they lay their eggs. Penguins are also
Speaker 1: receptive learners. Handlers at the Georgia Aquarium occasionally wanted their
Speaker 1: African penguins to take part in educational or interactive programs,
Speaker 1: but they weren't sure how well they would take instruction.
Speaker 1: It turns out the penguins are pretty smart cookies, Odell said.
Speaker 1: When we started incorporating a more formalized training program with them,
Speaker 1: they learned incredibly fast. Like most animals, they are responsive
Speaker 1: to operating conditioning and positive reinforcement. The way they respond
Speaker 1: to people has a lot to do with their history,
Speaker 1: where they came from, their interaction here, and the training process.
Speaker 1: She said that like other animals, including many species of birds.
Speaker 1: Penguins can form strong attachments to specific trainers. With so
Speaker 1: many penguin species, the conservation status of any given type
Speaker 1: of penguin runs the gamut from of least concern to
Speaker 1: vulnerable to endangered. On the International Union for Conservation of
Speaker 1: Nature's Red List of Threatened Species, African penguins are considered endangered.
Speaker 1: O'Dell said their numbers have decreased over the last a
Speaker 1: hundred years. There are only sixteen thousand breeding pairs left.
Speaker 1: There's speculation that this species of penguin be extinct within
Speaker 1: our lifetime, possibly in the next fifteen to twenty years
Speaker 1: without significant changes. The problems are mostly man made. In
Speaker 1: addition to competing with humans for the same fish, their
Speaker 1: prey has also moved. Odell said the penguins have to
Speaker 1: swim farther to get food and by the time they
Speaker 1: get back to their chicks they've digested everything. They don't
Speaker 1: have anything to feed their young, but programs are in
Speaker 1: place to help. Odell said. There are people from our
Speaker 1: team from Vet Services who support the South African Foundation
Speaker 1: for the Conservation of Coastal Birds to help with rescue,
Speaker 1: rehab and release of African penguins and other seabird species,
Speaker 1: and fund research projects to get the African penguin population
Speaker 1: growing in the right direction again. Today's episode was written
Speaker 1: by Pat E. Rasmussen and produced by Tyler Clay. For
Speaker 1: more on this in a huddle of other topics, visit
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