Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 01/05/2009 - 04:23
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Oden Antarctic Expedition 08

Mr. Peneston! its ROBBIEEEEEE!

 

What's an albatross?

Tue, 01/06/2009 - 10:12

Jeff Peneston

Robbie,
An albatross is a huge sea bird that specializes in being able to fly over the waves, hundreds of miles from land for months at a time.  It has very long, narrow wings and it rarely beats them up and down.  Instead it holds its wings out straight and soars on the wind currents themselves.  This is very efficient.  If you hold your arms out straight and look from your right hand fingertips to your left hand fingertips, that is about the length of ONE of the wings on a Wandering Albatross.   We have not seen any in over a month because they prefer the open sea to the sea ice areas that we came here to study.
Thanks for the question,
Jeff Peneston