Penguin Proposal

Penguins are not only beautiful but are very romantic when it comes to proposing their mates. There are basically two charming traditions that surrounds the story related to love and proposal of penguins. Also they are among those rare animals who choose their mates for life.

 

Story #1:

 

When a male penguin falls in love with a female penguin, he searches the entire beach to find the perfect pebble and when he finally finds it, he waddles over to her chosen one and places the pebble right in front of her feet. If she picks the peddle, it means she accept the proposal.

 

Story#2:

 

During the mating season penguins gather on the beaches with a pebble in their possession. Each penguin will present his/her perfect pebble to the mate he or she most desires. If the pebble is accepted, they are mates for life.

 

SeaWorld To Open New Penguin Exhibit in May

SeaWorld Orlando’s chilling new attraction, Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin, will open May 24, the park announced Tuesday. Empire of the Penguin, which SeaWorld says will be the coldest theme park attraction in the world, will be both a ride and an encounter with penguins in their habitat, where the temperature must be kept in the low 30s.

Kinky Penguins Sexual Antics Revealed!

London’s Natural History Museum has unearthed a landmark study by George Murray Levick, a scientist with the ill-fated 1910-13 Scott Antarctic Expedition, detailing the birds’ sexual shenaniganshave come to the Penguin Post. Homosexual acts, sexual abuse of chicks and even attempts by male penguins to mate with dead females are recorded in Levick’s paper “Sexual Habits of the Adelie Penguin”, which had been lost for decades.

“Kinky” Adelie sexual behavior mortified Edwardian England.

Edwardian Englishman Levick was so horrified by his own findings that he initially recorded them in Greek to make them inaccessible to the average reader.  Male penguins gather in “hooligan bands of half a dozen or more and hang about the outskirts of the knolls, whose inhabitants they annoy by their constant acts of depravity,” he later wrote in the paper in English.

A page for Levick’s original notebook.

To this day, Levick is the only scientist to have studied an entire breeding cycle at Cape Adare after he spent the Antarctic summer of 1911-12 there, the Guardian said. Captain Robert Scott and four others perished after reaching the South Pole on January 17, 1912 – only to find Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen had beaten them to it more than a month earlier.

But Levick survived, despite having been forced with five others to spend an entire Antarctic winter in an ice cave with few supplies after the expedition ship, Terra Nova, was blocked by ice on its way to rescue them. Back in Britain, he published a paper called “Natural History of the Adelie Penguin”, but his findings about the species’ astonishing sexual behavior were considered so shocking that they were omitted.

Depraved penguin sexuality depicted in this Penguin Place mug.

This material was used for a short separate study, “Sexual Habits of the Adelie Penguin”, that was privately passed around a few experts. The groundbreaking paper – which came around 50 years ahead of the next study on the subject – had been lost until the recent discovery of a copy by Douglas Russell, curator of birds at the Natural History Museum.

Russell has had the paper published in the journal Polar Record along with an analysis of Levick’s work. Russell told the U.K. Sunday newspaper, The Observer, that the penguins’ sexual inexperience is to blame for the antics that so disgusted Levick. “Adelies gather at their colonies in October to start to breed. They have only a few weeks to do that and young adults simply have no experience of how to behave,” he explained. “Hence the seeming depravity of their behavior.”

Plucky Penguin Picks Up Pinkeye

The Penguin Post has learned that the plucky Penguin 337 that was recaptured last week after nearly three months on the lam in the polluted waters of Tokyo Bay has pinkeye, an aquarium official said Monday. The Humboldt penguin, one of 135 kept at Tokyo Sea Life Park, was taken back into captivity after 82 days of freedom following a breakout that made global headlines and garnered it a following around the world. On Friday, the day after its adventure came to an end, the bird “was diagnosed by a veterinarian as having conjunctivitis (pinkeye), so we have kept it in a room separate from the rest of our penguins,” said aquarium official Takashi Sugino. Fans of the 1-year-old runaway — known by the aquarium only as Penguin No. 337 and lacking any sexual features due to its age — will have to wait until it has recovered from the condition, before it is back in public view. “At first its eyes seemed to be swelling a bit, but now it’s recuperating, as we’ve been giving it eyedrops every day,” Sugino said. “I don’t know the exact reason for its eye disease, but in this aquarium the seawater pumped up for penguins is filtered and disinfected,” he added. A government official said the water quality in Tokyo Bay has improved in recent years, but pollution by organic substances sometimes breaches environmental thresholds.

Young Penguin Makes A Friend

Humans love to line up in front of the glass walls at penguin zoo exhibits, staring at the antics of the black-and-white, two-legged creatures.  But what about when the tides are turned, when penguins get a chance to meet the strange humans,  observing them for the first time? The Penguin Post has learned that that moment was captured on camera by a man traveling to penguins’ home habitat, Antarctica. “I was on a tour with friends in Antarctica when we visited a penguin colony,” the visitor, Joel Oleson, explained.  “Our guide told us not to approach the penguins, but that it was okay for them to approach us.” “I laid down to seem non- threatening, and the baby penguin approached me,” said Oleson, a self-described “travel junkie” who has traveled  to over 100 countries since 2008 and blogs about his adventures at Travelingepic.com.  Watch the video to see what happened next.

Gay Penguins Finally Lay An Egg

It seems all the world loves a good “gay” penguin story and this tale of penguin bromance is no exception. But, this heartwarming story has a slightly different twist than your usual gay penguin fare.  The Penguin Post has learned that after six years of being together this pair of wannabe penguin dads, are actually going to be dads!  Their instinctive wish to have a family after a half dozen years of building nests for naught has finally come true after keepers at their home in Madrid’s Fainia Zoo in Spain made a very special delivery of an egg to the stone, grass and moss nursery nest the penguins had carefully prepared.  The unique male Gentoo penguins called Inca and Rayas have reportedly welcomed their future offspring into their home with open wings.  Like clockwork, every spring since 2006 the pair have carefully constructed a nest together in preparation for their new addition, but as they were both male penguins an egg obviously never appeared. So sadly year after year they were forced to watch from the sidelines as other mating couples doted on their new additions.  So when zookeepers needed to find a home for an extra egg this year they decided to give desperate dads their shot at fatherhood.  And the delight of the keepers and Inca and Rayas the penguins natural paternal instincts kicked in straight away.  Inca is carrying out the traditional ‘female’ duty of keeping the egg warm by sitting on it. Partner Rayas is standing guard over the nest, gobbling down fish to be regurgitated at a later date to feed the new hungry mouth. The imminent arrival of the baby penguin next month has, according to keepers, put Rayas a little on edge, but what couple (human or penguin) hasn’t experienced this?  It also seems to have had the desired effect of keeping the relationship alive between the penguins.  Yolanda Martin, who looks after the penguins at Faunia Park,  emphasized that the penguins are not gay, just very good friends that have formed a strong bond. She said: ‘We wanted them to have something to stay together for – so we got an egg.  Otherwise they might have become depressed.’  Twitter users have been flocking to congratulate the pair and the heart-warming story has provided a welcome break from the economic doom and gloom filling the recent Spanish news pages.  It is not the first time that a pair of male penguins has been given an egg to look after. Last year in China two male penguins called Adam and Steve were given a young chick to care for because its mother was struggling to juggle caring for three chicks. Adam was even dressed in a tie and Steve a red blouse for a marriage ceremony. There was also Roy and Silo at New York’s Central Park zoo who were given a rejected egg after trying to hatch a stone. Meanwhile Canadian penguins Buddy and Pedro were put in separate enclosures at Toronto Zoo because keepers felt they were not making a contribution to the gene pool.  It seems all the world’s press love reporting about “gay” penguins and this is no exception, although in these cases the penguins are not actually gay.  They’re more like the best of friends, living cooperatively because they’re in the same enclosure. “When you put things in captivity, odd things happen,” says Kevin McGowan of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology in Ithaca, N.Y. “The way penguins work is they do get paired for a long time. Basically, the only other penguin they care about is their mate, so it’s important for them to find somebody who’s compatible, and if you don’t have a normal upbringing then it’s difficult to say how ‘normal’ they can be.” In the case of Inca and Rayas the duo has enthusiastically taken to the roles of prospective parents. Inca has taken on the “female” role, spending his days devotedly sitting on the egg, according to the paper. Rayas has taken the “male” role, guarding the nest and storing food in his beak as he prepares to feed the chick with regurgitated fish. “In birds, it doesn’t matter what sex you are. Both sexes are perfectly capable and absolutely necessary to raise a penguin bird,” McGowan said. “It’s not like mammals where only one sex can feed.”  So, good luck Inca and Rayas, we can’t wait till the hatching.

Inca and Rayas looking for the perfect stones for their nest.

Tap Dancing Penguins

Congrats to the girls at the Hazel Boone Dance Studio Team who’s very cool Happy Feet Tap routine finished in first place in a local dance competition in Canton, Mass while wearing our penguin costumes! You gals made penguin lovers the world over proud.

Penguin Shower Cap

Of course it’s real easy to stock our Penguin Place shop with penguin stuffed animals, mugs, and salt and pepper shakers, but we really love the crazy, silly and unique penguin goodies that also make up or crazy, silly and unique website, which is why we’re always happy when something like our Penguin Shower Cap comes back in stock.  Imported from the U.K. this silly penguin is one of our definitive strange penguin items.  No, I’ve never worn one in the shower, and yes I can still love it even if I’ve never worn it.

Penguin Pens

How many penguin pens are too many?  The answer at Penguin Place appears to be you can never have too many penguin pens.  This week we’ve added our cool looking Penguin Click and 3-D Penguin Pens to our overflowing iceberg of penguin writing implements bringing our total to six, yes I said six different penguin pens!  How different can penguin pens be from each other you may ask?  Well, we’ve got everything from a very classy (and fancy) and weighted Emperor Penguin Pen, to an elegant King Penguin Pen,  our latest functional Click Penguin Pen, the fun Icicle Penguin Pen.  Imported from Germany is the unique 3-D Penguin Pen, and the Light Up Globe Penguin Pen.   That doesn’t even include the penguin pens we get in our P-Bay Section every now and then.  So, obviously, at Penguin Place it’s the more the merrier when it comes to Penguin Pens.

Our latest Click Penguin Pen

Fugitive Japanese Penguin Evades Capture

While it’s not exactly like trying to capture Godzilla, the penguin that made a break from a Japanese zoo the other day is still being tracked by baffled zoo keepers with hopes of recapturing the flightless bird.   The Penguin Posthas learned that after a couple of days of no success, their new plan is to sneak up on the young penguin when it takes a nap. Yeah right, I can’t see that happening.  The one-year-old Humboldt penguin was last spotted swimming in a Tokyo river, having thought to have scaled a sheer rock face to escape. Tokyo Sea Life Park official Takashi Sugino said the 24-inch penguin appears to have managed to clear a rock twice its size before making a waddle for it.  Which to me doesn’t seem like a very imposing obstacle for a two foot tall feisty penguin to overcome. “We first noticed the penguin might have fled when the director of a neighboring zoo e-mailed us Sunday, with a photo,” said Sugino. A second snap taken by a visitor allowed wardens to identify the missing bird as one that had hatched last January. While officials are unable to definitively determine how the bird managed to break out of the enclosure it shared with 134 other Humboldts, they suspect a burst of energy may have helped the penguin on its way. Sugino added: “Of course it can’t fly, but sometimes wildlife have an ‘explosive’ power when frightened by something. “Maybe it ran up the rock after being surprised.”  Last seen in the mouth of the Old Edogawa river that runs into Tokyo Bay, officials have dismissed catching up with the penguin by water. “It’s a bit of a struggle to catch it when it is swimming, because it swims at a tremendous speed,” Sugino said.“We are hoping to catch it when it climbs up on land to sleep.” Good luck with that plan.

Fugitive penguin before he escaped from Tokyo Zoo.