Notes

Penguins
Latin Name Eudyptes pachyrhynchus
Conservation Status Vulnerable
Location New Zealand
Colour Black & White
Height 60 cms (23.5 inches)
Weight 3.5 - 4 Kgs (7.7 - 8.8 lbs)
Life Expectancy 15 - 20 Yrs
Main Characteristics
Fiordland Penguins are medium sized birds being approximately 60 cms (23.5 inches) in height and weighing between 3.5 and 4 kgs (7.7 - 8.8 lbs).
They have a black head and back, and their front is white in colour. They have a orange/yellow stripe that runs from the base of their beak, over their eye and droops down at the back of their head. On their cheeks they have white streaks of feathers that they puff out when defending their nest.
They communicate by emitting barking calls when out at sea and by visual and vocal displays while on land.
Fiordland Penguins are very timid, usually active on land during the night, and are hardly ever seen during the day.
Habitat
Fiordland Penguins are found in New Zealand. They breed along the Fiordland coast, its outlying islands and Stewart Island.
Diet
Fiordland Penguins feed upon fish, krill, and squid. They make shallow dives to go and forage and feed.
Breeding
Male Fiordland Penguins return to the breeding site in June, closely followed by the females. They usually return the the nesting site they used the previous year and they construct nests in dense temperate forests, usually under bushes or in rock crevices. They nest in small colonies close to but out of sight of other breeding pairs.
In July females will lay 2 eggs and these are incubated by both parents for 30 - 36 days. They each take 5 - 12 day shifts incubating the eggs while the other one goes out to feed at sea. When the chicks hatch usually one is stronger and in most cases the weak one will not survive.
The chick is looked after by the male and fed by the female for the first few weeks, then the parents take it in turns to hunt. Sometimes the chicks join a creche with other youngsters, but they always return to their nest to be fed. By the time the chicks reach 10 weeks old they have their adult plumage and they are ready to go to sea.
Fiordland Penguins begin to breed when they reach 5 years of age and they return to their home colony to raise their young.
Predators
Predators of Fiordland Penguins include dogs, cats, ferrets, stoats, rats, weka and fur seals.
Subspecies
There are no subspecies of the Fiordland Penguin.
Interesting Facts
Fiordland Penguins are also known as:
Fiordland Crested Penguin
Thick-billed Penguin
Fjordland Penguin
Fjordland Crested Penguin
Tawaki
Fiordland Penguins are members of the crested penguin group which also includes the:
Royal Penguin
Macaroni Penguin
Snares Penguin
Erect-Crested Penguin
Rockhopper Penguin
The population of Fiordland Penguins is approximately 2,500 pairs.
Gilla monster
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The Gila monster is one of only two species of venomous lizards (its cousin, the Mexican beaded lizard, is the other). It can bite quickly and hold on tenaciously. Rather than injecting venom through hollow fangs like venomous snakes do, Gilas have enlarged, grooved teeth in their lower jaw. When they bite, their powerful jaws chew the venom in through capillary action along the grooves in these teeth. Gila monster venom is about as toxic as that of a western diamondback rattlesnake. However, a relatively small amount of venom is introduced in a Gila bite.The dorsal coloration of the Gila monster is black with pink or orange. In the southern subspecies, the reticulated Gila monster, the light markings, or bands, are broken up to form a reticulated pattern. In the northern subspecies, the banded Gila monster, the light markings generally form an unbroken band across the back. Gila monsters spend most of their lives hidden below the ground. There are three things that make them particularly well suited for the harsh environment in which they live. First, they are large lizards (the largest in the U.S.) measuring up to about 22 inches (56 cm) in total length, and are able to store more energy than smaller lizards. They store fat in their tail and in their bodies. Second, they are capable of eating relatively large meals. They have been observed in the wild eating meals up to one third of their body weight. Third, Gilas have low resting metabolic rates. Their low metabolic rates, and the ability to eat large meals, combined with their large capacity to store fat, make frequent searching for food unnecessary. Therefore, they are rarely seen above ground. It has been suggested that Gilas may consume their entire yearly energy budget in three or four large meals.
Scientific name: Spheniscus mendiculus
Size: 2.1 kg (m), 1.7 kg (f)
Nest type: burrow or crevices in lava
Favourite food: small fish
The northernmost of all penguins, Galapagos Penguins breed right on the equator. Populations fluctuate heavily under the influence of El Niño to a degree that the future survival of the species is endangered.
Identification:
They are the smallest of the Spheniscus penguins.
Distinguished by their relatively large bill and narrow white line around the face.
Habits:They breed mainly in caves or crevices of old lava flows and in burrows.
Distribution: map
Endemic to the Galapagos Islands where it breeds on Isabela, Fernandina and possibly Bartholomew. Distribution seems to be correlated with the Cromwell Current, which provides cold nutrient-rich surface water.
Migration and Vagrancy:
Galapagos Penguins remain close to their breeding islands throughout the year. A record from the Pacific coast of Panama might well have been ship-assisted.
Diet:
The main prey items taken by Galapagos Penguin are small fish like mullet and sardines,
The Snares penguin, also known as the Snares crested penguin and the Snares Islands penguin, is a penguin from New Zealand. The species breeds on The Snares, a group of islands off the southern coast of the South Island. This is a medium-small, yellow-crested penguin, at a size of 50–70 cm and a weight of 2.5–4 kg. It has dark blue-black upperparts and white underparts. It has a bright yellow eyebrow-stripe which extends over the eye to form a drooping, bushy crest. It has bare pink skin at the base of its large red-brown bill.
The hellbender, also known as the hellbender salamander, is a species of aquatic giant salamander endemic to eastern North America. A member of the family Cryptobranchidae, hellbenders are the only members of the genus Cryptobranchus, and are joined only by one other genus of salamanders at the family level. These salamanders are much larger than any others in their range, they employ an unusual means of respiration, and they fill a particular niche—both as a predator and prey—in their ecosystems, which either they or their ancestors have occupied for around 65 million years. The species is listed as Near Threatened.
Reptiles
The eastern newt is a common newt of eastern North America. It frequents small lakes, ponds, and streams or near-by wet forests and can coexist in an aquatic environment with small, noncarnivorous fish. It has lifespans of 12 to 15 years in the wild, and may grow to five inches in length. These animals are common aquarium pets, being either collected from the wild or sold commercially. The striking bright orange juvenile stage, which is land-dwelling, is known as a red eft. Some sources blend the general name of the species and that of the red-spotted newt subspecies into eastern red-spotted newt.
Sea snakes are closely related to Cobras. They are aquatic rather than land dwelling snakes. True sea snakes only live in water. Sea Snakes have adapted to a life in water and have small flattened heads that minimizes water resistance when they swim. The Sea Snakes body is compressed as an adaptation for swimming and the snakes are so thoroughly aquatic that they are either clumsy or slow when brought ashore.
Sea Snake Characteristics
Sea Snakes are only moderately large, rarely exceeding 2 metres in length, often with peculiarly small heads for their body size.
Only genus ‘Laticauda’ (which includes the Black Banded Sea Krait) has the typical broad ventral scales of snakes and it is often considered the least advanced of the sea snakes. Nevertheless, similar to cetaceans, their lungs still require them to surface occasionally to breathe. Oxygen intake through the skin has been demonstrated in sea snakes. Sea snakes like warm, tropical waters, however, when the water gets too warm, they swim down to cooler temperatures.
Transmitters attached to yellow-bellied sea snakes show they can dive to about 150 feet and can stay underwater for more than three hours. Like seabirds and sea turtles, sea snakes have special glands that collect extra salt from the blood. The snakess salt glands lie beneath their tongues. Each time a sea snake flicks its tongue, it is ejecting salt back into the ocean.
Sea snakes have specialized flattened tails for swimming and have valves over their nostrils which are closed underwater. Unlike eels, sea snakes lack gills or fins, instead having scales and spending much of their time underwater, they must surface regularly to breathe.
Sea Snake Habitat
Sea snakes are confined to the tropical oceans, chiefly the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific Ocean. The yellow-bellied sea snake, (Pelamis platurus), extends to the eastern Pacific. The olive sea snake, (Aipysurus laevis), tends to live in reefs.
Sea Snake Behaviour and Diet
The yellow-bellied sea snake (Pelamis platurus) is pelagic (living in open oceans or seas rather than waters adjacent to land or inland waters) and is seen on occasions floating in massive groups. Fish that come up to shelter under slicks provide food for the snakes. Occasionally these yellow-bellied sea snakes get washed up on beaches after storms and pose a hazard to children.
Sea snakes are aggressive only during the mating season in the winter, the sea snake is very curious and they become fascinated by elongated objects such as high pressure hoses.
The Sea snakes favourite food is fish. Sea snakes prey on fish (including eels) and crustaceans. A couple of species are specialised in eating fish eggs. Others are specialised in eating certain fish species.
Sea Snake Reproduction
Except for a single genus, all sea snakes are ovoviviparous (development of eggs that remain within the mothers body up until they hatch or are about to hatch.). The young are born alive in the water where they live out their entire life cycle. In some species, the young are quite large, sometimes up to half as long as their mother. The one exception is the genus ‘Laticauda’, which are oviparous (animals that lay eggs with little or no other embryonic development within the mother). Its five species all lay their eggs on land.
Sea Snake Venom
Sea snakes may not be the most venomous in the world, however, their venom is more toxic than that of Mojave rattlesnakes and king cobras. Sea snakes venom contains some of the same chemicals found in cobra venom, only more concentrated in form.
Lemur
Chickaree
The Jackass Penguin Spheniscus demersus, sometimes called "African Penguin" or "Black-flippered Penguin", is endemic to the rocky coasts of southwestern Africa. Its preferred name (e.g., the one used in Dickinson 2003) refers to from its loud, braying donkey-like call. It is one of four species in the genus: the others are Magellanic S. magellanicus of southern South America, Humboldt S. humboldti of the west coast of South America, and Galapagos S. mendiculus of the Galapagos Islands. I'd only seen two other species of penguin prior to this trip, but one of them was Humboldt Penguin, so this was not a new genus for me. It was, however, Rita's first penguin — a life family for her!
All of the Spheniscus penguins have similar black-and-white patterns. Jackass Penguin is most similar to Magellanic — they both occur on the southern tips of continents — and they both have a bright pink eyering and loral patch formed by bare skin [Humboldt does as well but also has much pink on the base of the bill]. Jackass typically has a single breastband (like the one shown to the right), while Magellanic typically has two breast bands, but there is overlap because some Jackass Penguins also carry a double band. Magellanic and Humboldt have heavier bills than Jackass; the small Galapagos Penguin has a much slimmer bill (from Martinez 1992).
There were once colonies of millions of Jackass Penguins (see stories in Peterson 1979). Today, Birdlife International (2000) lists it as Vulnerable, with an estimated world population of 180,000 birds and declining. Just seven islands support 80% of the breeding population. It is threatened by disturbance and predators (e.g., feral cats) at some colonies, by ocean pollution and oil spills (a recent spill affected 40% of the population and became a major rescue effort), but mostly by food shortages attributable to large fish catches by commercial purse-seine fisheries. These penguins feed heavily on sardines and anchovies and squid, and may forage up to 40 km offshore (Birdlife International 2000, Martinez 1992). During our visit to South Africa, we saw a few penguins elsewhere along the rocky coast, and at the Cape Gannet gannetry at Lamberts Bay, to the northwest of Cape Town. The range extends north well into Namibia.
Jackass penguin colonies in South Africa
jackass penguin colony south africa
Jackass penguins are endemic to South Africa. They are called Jackas because of their braying donkey-like sound. There are colonies around the South African coastline stretching from Namibia to almost as far as Port Elizabeth to the east.
nesting jackass penguin in south africaMuch work is being done to conserve these colonies which inevitably are in decline due to human activity, pollution and competition with seals and the fishing industry.
At one time Jackass penguins used to make their nests or burrows in ages old deposits of guano. People removed this guano in the 19th century forcing the penguins to burrow into soft soil, sand or even lay eggs in more exposed places in the open.
Breeding mainly take splace on small islands off the coast of the West Cape where, apart from seals, there are fewer predators.
Good places in South Africa to view penguin colonies are Simonstown and Betty's Bay - both within driving distance of Cape Town.