Penguin — SANCCOB founded · 115

Tagged emperors have exceeded 500 m and stayed down more than 20 minutes. That is a seal-like performance on a bird lung. Luc Jacquet’s 2005 film made Aptenodytes forsteri a global winter story. Scientists later argued the narration over-moralised a physiological commute. What did the 2000 Treasure oil spill show?

About 19,000 African penguins were oiled near Cape Town. SANCCOB and volunteers ran one of the largest bird-rehab operations recorded. The tight thermoregulatory huddle is an emperor (and some king) story. Burrowing little penguins and tree-nesting gentoos use different heat tricks.

Yes on a decadal clock. Purse-seine competition and shifting sardine/anchovy biomass cut South African colonies by large fractions since the 1950s peak. Salt glands above the eye dump NaCl as a concentrated drip from the bill — the same avian gadget albatrosses use. Erect-crested and others depend on stable subantarctic fisheries and nest sites. Mice on Gough and other islands add a predation problem flightless birds cannot fly away from.