Hello, mates. If you’re studying this weblog I feel it’s secure to imagine that the information of the final two weeks has you feeling fairly exhausted, livid, anguished, wrenched, gutted, and different issues which are merely past phrases. I’m with you. I’m there too.
This installment of Bird of the Week isn’t precisely counterprogramming. We don’t actually do this right here. Instead, it’s parallel (tandem?) programming. This fowl ode exists in the identical universe because the horrors taking place in Gaza. That’s true whether or not I say so or not. It’s the dissonance many people reside with proper now. Hopefully, this specific occasion will make you’re feeling barely much less insane as a substitute of extra.
*Prince voice* Dearly beloved, we’re gathered right here at present to get by this factor known as “life”—and to have fun a penguin. Not simply any penguin, thoughts you, probably the most penguin-est penguin of all of the penguins: the emperor penguin.
Oh hell sure. Before we get into this breathtaking beast. I’ve to provide credit score the place credit score is due. My muse right here was none aside from presenter Noel Fielding on final week’s episode of The Great British Bake Off:
Noel’s sweaters are principally a personality on the present now (LOVING this season, by the best way. Bake Off is BACK), however this one is unquestionably one of many all time greats. It additionally popped up on my display on the heels of our final Bird of the Week, the macaroni penguin, and once I noticed it, I simply knew: It is likely to be bread week within the tent, but it surely’s PENGUIN MONTH on the weblog. It’s truthfully the least we are able to do to atone for our failure to characteristic our flightless feathered mates till now.
Okay *cracks knuckles* let’s get into it.
The emperor penguin is the tallest and heaviest of all penguin species. It’s endemic to Antarctica (basic penguin conduct, like it), and it seems to be like this. Like, actually, bow down:
I really feel obligated to notice that I nonetheless maintain a really deep and highly effective sense reminiscence from once I first actually clocked emperor penguins. It was once I noticed 1992’s Batman Returns—a evenly disturbing and all-time nice movie—for the primary time. (If you’re curious here’s a very cool piece about how the manufacturing workforce created The Penguin’s penguin military.)
Anyway, that’s truthfully a complete different story however now Jack and I’ve each talked about Batman in our penguin items. Let’s get again to the fowl. Look at them go!
Emperor penguins can live up to 20 years, weigh as much as 88 kilos, and stand almost 4 toes tall. To face up to their extraordinarily harsh atmosphere the place temperatures can drop to -58°F and winds can attain 125 mph, they depend on a thick layer of blubber and cooperative conduct, huddling collectively in colonies of dozens and rotating the association so that everybody will get an opportunity to be on the toasty middle. That’s mutual support child!
The gender dynamics within the emperor penguin world are additionally very counter-culture, and feminine emperor penguins are a few of the coolest and most unbiased girls on Earth. They lay a single egg after which embark on a months-long searching journey whereas the males keep behind to maintain the egg heat. They guard the egg the complete time the feminine is gone, forsaking meals and enduring the frigid Antarctic parts alone. Then when the feminine is again with a gullet filled with seafood, she takes over, regurgitating the products to the infant whereas the male heads off to fend for himself. We love a agency division of labor in terms of parental duties, slay penguins.
To be clear, these spherical boys don’t simply stand round on a regular basis although. They can even climb ice cliffs, are phenomenal swimmers, and may dive up to 1800 feet to hunt for krill, fish, and squid. LOOK AT THEM BELLY SLIDE INTO THE WATER ahhhhh.
You know a lot of the remaining—flightless, black and white and yellow coloring like a goddamn superhero, serial monogamists—however I’ve to confess, regardless of being comparatively conversant in them, I discovered myself going DEEP on emperor penguins. Maybe it’s my psychological state lately, however these birds are actually a shocking species. There’s one thing about their stately method paired with being absolute goofballs who stay in some of the extreme locations on earth that makes them deeply fascinating. Maybe it’s as a result of they appear so alien and ill-conceived, and but they’re good. Maybe it’s as a result of many pictures of them appear like band album covers:
As cool as they appear, the atmosphere of emperor penguins isn’t staying cool with them. Sea ice loss is threatening to decimate populations and it’s already wreaking havoc on colonies in Antarctica. Emperor penguins had been granted endangered species protections in 2022, however with local weather change actually respiration down their necks, these animals are vulnerable to “quasi-extinction” within the subsequent a number of a long time.
We write quite a bit concerning the risk ranges and conservation standing of the birds we cowl, and admittedly, many of the information is unhealthy, however this information hits me notably arduous. Emperor penguins are an iconic, indelible species. But so is each species. We’re in an period the place it seems like loss is throughout us. We’re frequently confronted with what we stand to lose as the results of mindless greed, violence, and neglect, and prideful, hubristic, and hateful urges. It feels more and more arduous to see the morality or humanity amid the horror. It’s arduous to witness the systemic annihilation of the issues that make life, life. So we struggle again, we kiss our family members, we write blogs about penguins, and cry quiet tears whereas doing it. For the penguins, and for lots of different issues.
I’m unsure of a lot however I’m positive grateful for this weblog and people of you who learn and care about Bird of the Week. I’m glad we are able to collect to understand and maintain different dwelling issues as valuable, and have fun their bizarre and superb methods.
Let’s finish this one with David Attenborough, humanity’s biggest ambassador of the animal kingdom. And with child penguins, one of many many remaining good issues on this world.
Do you’ve gotten a fowl you need us to cowl? Reach out to us at [email protected]. And as at all times, try our full Bird of the Week checklist right here.
