How Do I Love Thee?
To call his mate, a male Adélie penguin uses a tried-and-true formula: flap flippers, tilt head to sky, then cut loose with a braying screech of a love song. It’s called an ecstatic call, and among penguins, it’s contagious. “One starts, and pretty soon everyone’s doing it,” said ecologist David Ainley. Ainley, who studies Adélie colonies in Antarctica, worked with a reporting team from WHOI during a 2007 Polar Discovery expedition at Cape Royds on Ross Island. (It is also sitting on an egg!)
Snowy Sheathbill--Anvers Island
This image is of a snowy sheathbill at Anvers Island, Antarctica. Snowy sheathbills are scavengers, acquiring much of their nourishment by stealing food already caught by penguins and shags or by eating human refuse. For this reason, they frequently live close to gentoo and chinstrap penguin or shag colonies. They primarily live around the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. Sheathbills can grow to 40 centimeters (16 inches) in length with a wingspan of 79 centimeters (31 inches).
Emperor's Gravity-Defying Leap
Emperor penguins may be flightless, but as this 2011 shot reveals, they're perfectly adapted to their semi-aquatic lifestyle. These penguins can dive more than 1600 feet (500 meters) down for up to 12 minutes. After a completed hunting spree, the birds launch themselves back onto the ice like feathery torpedoes. Image credit: Dr. Paul Ponganis, National Science Foundation
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