I thought everybody knew penguins do not fly until one of my students waited until the end of the class, when everybody had left the room, to tell me, not to ask me, but to tell me, that penguins do fly. I tried to explain that even though penguins are birds with wings and feathers, that they do not fly. 'I will show you' he said, full of confidence, 'can we watch youtube on your computer?' I said yes, and so there it was, the indisputable proof of flying penguins by the BBC.
I would say our society is in trouble we are in trouble when our students believe youtube more than their teachers, but that video is pretty well done. I cannot link the video here, but do search for it in youtube as 'BBC penguins fly', or something like that; you will be amazed.
Despite the video I know penguins do not fly, but we are completely puzzled aboard the Palmer by how penguins reach the upper parts of icebergs. I asked this question a couple of days ago on this journal after we saw what appears to be a chinstrap penguin on a ver large berg. There is definitively an evolutionary advantage to be far from the surface of the water where orcas and leopard seals can find them, but how do they get there?
A lonely penguin seeing the world pass by
I was curious then, and even more after talking with Ming. Aimee told him he has a picture of a large iceberg with penguins on it. Ming did not believe him, as he could not find any penguin on his picture. She insisted she had seen the penguins high on the iceberg, and was not satisfied by Ming's results. It turns out I photographed the same iceberg, and have already posted on the blog without knowing that, yes, there is a penguin on the shot. Aimee is happy to know her memory was working well, but I am more confused than before about how do they climb up there.You can see it when the picture is magnified a lot. How did it get there?
Trust me, when I blow the image up on the computer, there is a penguin there
After all this I began a quick search of alpine penguins. Jim had this picture of a penguin colony, where you can see a few of them on the penthouse. Their dropping in the ice suggest the colony has lived on that berg for a long time, which means to me they can go up and down in search of food. Again, how did they get there?
A colony of penguins on an iceberg. Some have amazing views from the penthouse. Picture by Jim Swift.
Another of Jim's picture of the same iceberg reminded me of that iceberg; it turns out I came out to deck minutes after we had passed that view of the colony and shot this picture of the same berg. It is now, almost a month later taking that picture, that I realize I do see the penguins on my shot.
Hard to believe, but that is the penthouse of a penguin colony
We do not have bird biologists on board, so we are puzzled by penguins' ability to climb icebergs. The most simple explanation is that there must be some sort of a natural ramp carved on our blind side of the bergs. Then I found Ming's picture of the same iceberg Jim and I had photographed. A different point of view that shows no ramp. How did they get there?
Another view of the same colony of Adélies. Picture by Mingxi Yuang
We will be on the dark until we get home and can search on line again, perhaps on a BBC video, or one of you writes to us about the topic. I would say, though, that I did see a penguin that would have loved to fly. This group was running away from the big metal monster crushing the ice. It seems as it might take off,
Adélie penguins running away scared by the ship's ice crushing. It seems that one is about to fly.
but it did not, and had to waddle away like his friends. About the BBC video, I got to see it again on the ship since there is a public folder on the computer system with lots of fun videos. Next to it was the second part of it called 'Making penguins fly on April's fools day 2008' by the BBC. I recommend you find it on youtube as well. I wish I had known about this video when the student kept insisting as he walked out of my room that penguins do fly.