QUESTION:
What do penguins do on really hot days?
What do they consider to be really hot days?
What do baby penguins eat?
How do penguins chase their mates?

        From:  Burch Elementary School third graders
               Tyrone, Georgia

ANSWERS from Carol Vleck, Researcher, Palmer Station, Antarctica
             Fri, 7 Feb 1997 08:47:08 -0600


Dear Burch Elementary Third Graders,

What do penguins do on really hot days?
On really hot days the penguins near Palmer station, especially the chicks,
lie flat down on the ground so that they can dump heat from their bodies
into the cool rocks, and they pant a lot.  The adults also sometimes go for
a swim in the ocean if they can leave their nests, or they try to find some
snow to roll in or eat.  I've even seen both adult and baby penguins trying
to catch snowflakes in their mouths as they come tumbling out of the sky.
It is quite a site!

What do they consider to be really hot days?
The penguins near Palmer station would consider it a really hot day it is
was above freezing by a few degrees, probably about 40=B0 F and if the sun
was shining and there was no wind.  As long as the sky is cloudy, they
aren't probably ever too hot here because the air temperature is never much
above freezing, even in the summer.  There's also lots of wind in the area
and that helps keep the penguins cool, too.

What do baby penguins eat?
Baby penguins can only eat things that their parents bring them back from
the sea.  There's nothing near the nest to eat.  The parents mostly bring
back krill, which is a small, shrimp-like creature that is very abundant in
these water.  The penguins babies gulp down big balls of packed krill that
the parents regurgitate (that means vomit) back out of their stomachs.  It
sounds awful to us, but the penguin chicks thrive and grow very fast on
this diet.

How do penguins chase their mates?

Penguins don't chase their mates.  They just meet back at the old nest site
year after year.  The male usually gets back first, but then the female
returns, comes back to the same exact nest spot, and if she's lucky will
find the old mate there.  Sometimes a new female has taken her place and
then she may have to try and chase that bird away before she can have her
old nest site and mate back again. Their ability to go far out to sea in
the winter, maybe hundreds of miles, and then return to the same island,
the same colony and the same nest site in the colony is very impressive.

Thanks for your questions,
Carol Vleck