Can’t seem to escape penguins in London these days… After the recent arrival of a family of gentoos at the SEA LIFE London Aquarium earlier this month, ZSL London Zoo have now opened their new Penguin Beach. This fantastic new feature boasts England’s largest penguin pool and will be a breeding facility for colonies of Humboldt, macaroni, black-footed and rockhopper penguins.
However, nothing quite compares with seeing penguins in the wild. Whether it’s the most northerly species, the Galapagos Penguin, which as the name implies are resident in the Galapagos Islands and are the only species of penguin to cross the equator into the Northern Hemisphere, or the little fairy penguins which inhabit Australia. New Zealand, South Africa, South America and of course the Sub-Antarctic Islands are all home to penguins too (yellow-eyed, Fiordland crested, Magellanic, black-footed, macaroni, king…to name just a few!), and I have travelled the globe in search of many of these. In fact you could say I've developed an unhealthy obsession with these little feathered friends!
Yet I have to admit, much as I love them, none of these penguins waddling around on grass and rocky beaches have quite the same appeal as seeing penguins against a background of pristine white ice… Well, I say pristine, admittedly there’s usually a fair amount of guano to enhance the scene, but regardless of the facts the various Antarctic penguins are just that little more, well, vivid I suppose - contrasting as they do against the ice floes, and enduring such harsh conditions with boisterous good humour (I defy anyone to watch a colony of chinstrap penguins and not smile at their antics!).
My personal favourites are the adelies - like a child's drawing they are the archetypal black and white penguin, no stripes or flashes of colour, just pure, simple, small and highly entertaining. I could watch these little people for hours, and indeed have done so, as they bustle about seeming endlessly busy. Antarctica is home to 38 separate colonies of adelie penguins, scattered around the continent. The largest colony is on Ross Island, home to over half a million penguins! I'll be heading down there first chance I get...
