Antarctic & Other Penguins Home Page
Penguin Food Chain
The Original Penguin - The Great Auk
Prehistoric Penguins
Emperor Penguins
King Penguins
Gentoo Penguins
Chinstrap Penguins
Adelie Penguins
Macaroni Penguins
Rockhopper Penguins
Royal Penguins
Yellow Eyed Penguins
Erect Crested Penguins
Snares Island Crested Penguins
Fiordland Crested Penguins
African Penguins
Magellanic Penguins
Humboldt Penguins
Galapagos Penguins
Little Blue Penguins
White Flippered Penguins
Penguins - Historic Glimpses
Penguin Art Gallery
Message Board
Guestbook
Mail Form
|
A Successful Colony
 | Picture:King Penguin Colony on Salisbury Plain. South Georgia. 27 Dec 1989. The Nests Stretched Right High up on the Hill
King Penguins Aptenodytes patagonicus
King penguins have a wide distribution on islands north of the pack ice and breed on islands just north and south of the Antarctic convergence. There are some on Heard Island, Macquarie Island, Kerguelen Islands, South Shetlands and now a few have come back to the Falklands where the original colonies were wiped out by sealers. There are particularly strong penguineries on South Georgia and the largest of all are on the Crozet Islands.
|
|
Colourful Plumage
 | Picture: Two Adult King Penguins. Salisbury Plain. South Georgia. 27 Dec 1989.
Adult king penguins are bigger than most penguins and only a little smaller than the largest, the emperor, to which it is very similar in appearance. It weighs half as much as the emperor and relative to its size has longer feet, bill and flippers. It is about 37inches (95cm) high and weighs about 12kg.
Kings have a white breast with orangey-yellow colouration at the top. Back and flippers are shiny dark grey, feet are dark grey and behind the eye there is a bright patch of dark orangey-pink. The lower part of the beak also has a flash of orange
|
|
Kings Mating
 | Picture: This is How they do it: King Penguins Making Sure of the Next Generation!Surrounding them are Penguins in Various Stages of Moult. The Brown Bits are the Down of the Chicks. Salisbury Plain. South Georgia. 27 Dec 1989.
King penguins have a breeding cycle different from other penguins which have a yearly cycle. They may rear 2 chicks in 3 years in two separate hatchings. Because of the different geographical locations of the colonies breeding times can vary. On South Georgia, for example, a pair may return to the colony to mate in October. If they lay early in November and are successful, because of the 10-13 month chick rearing time they will be later the following year. |
|
Incubating the Egg
 | Picture:Here you can Clearly See the Bulge where the King Penguin's Flap of Skin and Feathers is Covering the Egg Held on Top of the Penguin's Feet. Salisbury Plain. South Georgia. 27 Dec 1989.
If an egg is laid in early February the chick can grow big enough to survive during the winter and the parents could then rear another chick. If they are very late the chick will not survive. It takes 14-16 months for kings to complete one breeding cycle. Unlike the Emperors the king chicks are fed all through the winter.
Like the emperors the king lays a single egg and incubates it by holding it on its feet.
|
|
Incubating Slit
 | Picture:Here you can See the Slit Just Above the Penguin's Feet Which Opens to Reveal Bare Flesh. When the Penguin has it's Egg on its Feet it Nestles Down so that the Egg is Against the Bare Flesh and is Completely Covered by the Insulating Flap of Skin and Feathers. Salisbury Plain. South Georgia. 27 Dec 1989.
There is a slit which opens at the bottom of the bird’s stomach near the feet so the egg can be in contact with warm skin. A flap of skin and feathers then covers the egg completely.
The chicks are fed with processed regurgitated food from the parents stomach.
During the Antarctic winter the chicks huddle together in a big creche for warmth. The parents return every 4 weeks or so to feed the chicks . By the end of the summer the larger chicks are fed every 2 or 3 days with about 3 kg of squid. About 80% of chicks survive the first year. |
|
Back from Fishing
 | Picture: Stately King Penguins Coming Ashore After Fishing (or Krilling!). Notice in the Background, the Somnolent Elephant Seal and the Rubbernecking Gentoo Penguin. Salisbury Plain. South Georgia.27 Dec 1989.
Kings feed on krill, squid and fish and dive down to around 800 ft for food. They can swim under water at 12 km/hr dive down to 50 m for food, sometimes diving down as far as 290 m and staying down for about 15 mins. They can range as far as 250 km away and even as far as Australia and New Zealand. When I visited a rescue centre in New Zealand, I saw a healthy recovered king. The staff were not sure how it came to be so far off course and even wondered if a fisherman from a trawler taken it and then let it go again.
It ran away at one stage (I wonder if it had a chick it was worrying about). However it turned up later on the door step pecking on the door for food!
|
|
In a Flap
 | Picture: A Common Posture for Adults and Chicks: Exercising the Flippers. Salisbury Plain. South Georgia. 27 Dec 1989.
While waiting for food and to fledge the king chicks will often flap their wings put their beaks in the air and make their characteristic call. The parents behave similarly, especially when greeting each other on return from the sea or changing over chick minding duties. This one was doing it by itself for the hell of it. |
|
Unafraid and Curious
 | Picture: King Penguins were Very Relaxed and Laid Back, Happy to Approach Tourists Out of Curiosity. The Soldiers Get to Know the Penguins by Name. Derelict Whaling Station. Grytviken. South Georgia. 28 Dec 1989.
The sites in South Georgia are near streams flowing from glaciers and the kings waddle down to the sea in groups to have a good wash and splash.
At the places I visited the kings were very tame and unafraid, happy to approach tourists out of curiosity. At Macquarie Island they had a different behaviour when they all swam out to greet and surround the ship and when we went to the shore on the zodiacs followed us there.
|
|
Kings in Different Stages of Development
 | Picture: A King Colony at the Base of a Glacier. Because of the Kings' Unusual Breeding Cycle In colonies like this All Different Stages of Development can be seen from Incubation through Chicks to Fledging. Salisbury Plain. South Georgia. 27 Dec 1989.
All this means that in a colony the kings can be at different stages of development, some moulting while others are still incubating eggs and some mating. |
|
An Oakum Boy
 | Picture: An Oakum Boy: A King Penguin Chick.This One was Making his Zuzz,Zuzz,Zuzz Call. Salisbury Plain. South Georgia. 27 Dec 1989.
Although king penguins look very like their bigger cousins the emperor penguins, their chicks look very different, being fluffy dark brown. At one time they were even considered a separate species and called Woolly penguins. In fact they look fat and rather comical. The old sealers called them the oakum boys as they looked like the rolls of oakum used for caulking ships. Oakum was a loose fibre got by picking old rope to bits, sometimes, even rope that had been used to hang criminals. Convicts or paupers often did this work. (Ever heard the expression money for old rope?). The word oakum comes from the old english (before 1150 AD) acumbe, literally off combing. The word comb comes from old saxon. Caulking was the stopping up of the seams of ships using oakum and a waterproofing material like tar. King penguins have a call which reminded me very much of the noise we used to make as children when we made “music” using a comb and paper – kind of a zuzz zuzz zuzz noise. |
|
A Right Royal Welcome
 | Picture: View from the Ship of King Penguins Surrounding the Ship. Macquarie Island. 17 Feb 1993.
A Right Royal Welcome
I have seen King Penguins on the Falklands, Heard Island and Salisbury Plain, Grytviken and Gold harbour on South Georgia but nowhere did we get the lovely welcome we received from the colony at Macquarie Island. As the ship neared the island they started to swim out and porpoise to meet and mob the ship. They bobbed about in the water floating like ducks. They reminded me of the way the seals off the Farne Islands in North East England bob about watching the tourists in the boats.
|
|
A Friendly Flotilla
 | Picture: King Penguins Forming a Welcoming Flotilla to Accompany our Zodiacs Ashore. Macquarie Island. 17 Feb 1993
A Flotilla of Kings
When we got into the zodiacs to go ashore on Australia’s Macquarie Island our King Penguin attendants came with us, swimming and porpoising alongside and behind us. It has been suggested that the ships propellers churn up the krill and this is the attraction. But this did not seem to be so as they seemed more interested in the visitors than eating or diving for krill.
|
|
This page has been visited  times. |
