The Great Penguin Rescue: Saving the African Penguins
Even though this penguin still has her downy chick coat she's already nearly adult height Alone On a mild June evening a three month old female African penguin chick wiggles out of her family's nest under a tree She straightens up tall and moans in short bursts over and over It's the way a penguin chick says I'm hungry Please feed me Her nesting colony in South Africa is full of activity at this time of year full of breeding pairs raising chicks And each evening the adults come ashore after feeding all day in the South Atlantic Ocean When this little female's parents return from the ocean with food in their bellies they'll find her and bring up partly digested fish from their stomachs for her to eat But they're not back yet so she sits waits outside the nest and
Adult African penguins spend most of their time in the water except when they come ashore to nest and raise chicks or to molt shed and replace their feathers Shadows knit together Other chicks are nearby waiting by their nests too At last donkey like brays fill the air as the adult African ocean penguins return from the
With feathered coats still shiny and wet from the surf the adults waddle ashore on Robben Island off the coast of Cape Town Parents will feed their chicks and huddle with them in their nest overnight Then in the morning the adults will head back to the ocean to catch more fish another day's meal for themselves and their chicks The young female chick moans and peeps as adults pass by A few adults pause and bray at her None claim her Check out the bristly inside of the penguin's mouth Its tongue has toothlike barbs that throat help push food down its
Look closely and you'll see a few bits of twigs under the chick Penguin parents collect twigs and grasses to build their nests The female chick waits for her parents until the path from the beach is empty Then she wiggles back inside her family's nest Snug inside she listens to the night sounds and sleeps Sometimes parents have to travel farther than usual to find enough to eat and they spend the night on the ocean But that night and another day passes and the her little female is still waiting for her parents to come back and feed
