>
> Dear PenguinPromises
>
> The penguins are still up in Brazil and having a relaxing time no doubt. Meanwhile
> spring has arrived down here in the empty penguin colony. The days are starting
> to get longer, which means that Promises will be arriving back home within the
> next few weeks.
>
> Even though Brazil is a lot further north than the penguin colony, it is still
> in the southern hemisphere. Penguins have never lived in the northern hemisphere.
> From the very first penguin over 50 million years ago, wild penguins have only
> ever lived in the southern hemisphere. We know that is true because penguin fossils
> have only ever been found in the south. The only penguins living in the northern
> hemisphere live in zoos and aquariums.
>
> It is not certain why penguins have never lived in the north, but the most likely
> explanation is just chance. Penguins need warm feathers for living in cold water,
> and that makes them unsuitable for living in very hot countries. Of course there
> are exceptions. There are penguins that have adapted to living in South Africa,
> Peru, Australia and the Galapagos Islands, all of which are hot.
>
> Even so, penguins do generally prefer cooler weather, and it is perhaps the hot
> climate around the equator that has prevented penguins from crossing over and
> establishing a breeding colony in the north. I am sure that penguins would have
> flourished in the north if they had ever got there.
>
> There are thousands of examples of animals that are able to thrive in other places,
> but never got there on their own due to physical barriers such as oceans, mountains
> or hostile climate. A few examples would be rabbits in Australia, mongoose on
> Hawaii, and rats escaping from ships and colonizing islands all over the world,
> wiping out populations of ground nesting birds.
>
> Most countries suffer from introduced species that were brought into the country
> by man. These animals have always been capable of living in their new country,
> but were simply prevented from doing so by a physical barrier. Very often global
> distribution is just a matter of luck.
>
> Hawaii rose up out of the sea as a volcano, and became an archipelago of lifeless
> islands isolated in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Every single creature on
> Hawaii found its way there from hundreds of miles away, and then adapted. Just
> a handful of bird species, blown out to sea by freak storms, found safe haven
> on Hawaii. Over millions of years this handful of birds evolved into 59 different
> species that are now unique to Hawaii.
>
> Before working with penguins, I used to work with the Hawaii Volcanoes National
> Park on a government project to save the small population of Hawksbill turtles
> and Hawaiian Goose that live there. Hawaii is a great example of how a lifeless
> island became populated against all the odds by birds and insects blown from
> hundreds of miles away. It is also a great example of how species that could
> not get there on their own, were introduced by man, causing tremendous damage
> to the native wildlife.
>
> No mammals at all ever reached Hawaii, except for two species of seal that swam
> there. In the absence of predators, many birds began nesting on the ground, or
> became flightless. Then man introduced mammals such as mongoose and wild boar,
> which began eating the eggs and chicks of these ground nesting birds, causing
> more than 30 species of bird to become extinct on Hawaii.
>
> Penguins never crossed the equator, even though their ability to swim would in
> theory have made it possible for them to have colonized the northern hemisphere.
> However they did reach all corners of the southern hemisphere. There are penguins
> in South America, in Africa, and in Australia and New Zealand.
>
> These penguins do not like cold weather at all. They avoid areas where there
> is snow and ice. These penguins lay their eggs on the ground, and the eggs would
> freeze and die if they were laid in a nest on snow and ice. These are not cold-weather
> penguins.
>
> Then of course there are the cold-weather penguins. They live in Antarctica,
> and on lots of small islands around Antarctica, where there is snow and ice.
> These penguins lay just one egg, and then they must hold that egg on their feet
> to stop it from touching the freezing ground.
>
> When the egg hatches, the chick must then also sit on its parent’s feet to stop
> it getting cold. If you have seen the films ‘Happy Feet’ or ‘March of the Penguin’,
> you might remember that.
>
> If you go to www.penguins.cl/penguins-region.htm you will find my world map showing
> where all the world’s penguins live. All the areas where penguins live are marked
> in red, and if you touch on any of these areas on the map, you will be taken
> to a page showing you which penguins live in that area.
>
> At the moment Brazil is still the temporary home for Promises and several million
> other penguins. Despite that, there are no penguin colonies in Brazil. Does that
> sound confusing?
>
> To be clear, there are penguins in Brazil, but there are no penguin nests in
> Brazil. As far as we know there never have been. Even though Brazil is home for
> Promises every winter, penguins do not actually live in Brazil. Brazil is a great
> place for their winter migration, but apparently it is not a place where penguins
> want to nest.
>
> Firstly there is the obvious problem of the heat. Even though there are a few
> exceptions, most penguins do not like extreme heat. During the winter months
> it is not quite as hot in Brazil, and Promises is also able to remain in the
> water 24 hours a day to keep cool. The penguins never go ashore in Brazil unless
> they become ill or get oiled. They remain in the refreshing seawater the whole
> time they are there.
>
> However to have a nest and raise chicks, Promises would have to spend many hours
> on land, and during the full heat of the summer too. It gets far too hot in Brazil
> during the summer for Promises to do that. Penguins have thick feathers that
> they cannot take off in hot weather. They would fry like an egg if they sat out
> in a nest under the strong Brazilian sun.
>
> There is also the problem of food. It is a fact that the nearer you go to the
> pole, the longer the days are in summer (and shorter in winter). So if Promises
> remained in Brazil, there would be less hours of daylight to catch food for hungry
> chicks. There is also less fish to catch around Brazil. The waters further south
> are much richer in food reserves during the summer than the waters of Brazil.
>
> So the penguins all leave Brazil in spring, and swim back home to raise chicks
> in the south, where it is easier to catch food and where they have more time
> to do so. Within the next few days Promises will begin the long journey back
> home to the nest.
>
> The penguins will swim past the same rugged cliffs, sandy beaches and lighthouses
> that they passed by on their journey up to Brazil. They will all take the same
> route for most of the way, but then when they reach the coast of Argentina, some
> of the penguins will leave the coastline and head out into the open ocean towards
> the Falkland Islands.
>
> Meanwhile Promises and many other penguins will keep following the coastline
> until they reach the Straits of Magellan. Magellanic penguins are named after
> the Straits of Magellan where they live. Here the penguins split up again as
> many carry on south beyond the Straits of Magellan.
>
> As Promises will be repairing the nest for new eggs and chicks, other penguins
> will be carrying on further south, swimming around Tierra del Fuego and on towards
> Cape Horn, and even beyond.
>
> Some penguins will swim way beyond Cape Horn, to the islands of Ildefonso and
> Diego Ramirez. Those tiny remote islands lie halfway between Cape Horn and Antarctica
> in the roughest seas on Earth. Only cold-weather penguins lie beyond there.
>
> Once the penguins arrive back home it will be work, work, work. First there will
> be weeks of sitting on the eggs to keep them warm. That is then followed by many
> more weeks of catching fish from dawn to dusk to feed hungry chicks. I will of
> course share all of that with you as it happens.
>
> I will write to you again in a few weeks time when Promises will have arrived
> back home. I will then be able to send you a new photo of Promises in the nest.
>
> Kind regards, Mike
>
>
>
