Posts Tagged ‘antarctica’
Human penguin interaction
In Antartica, the penguin gets more agency than the tourist. That seems totally fair, we are the visitors to their home.
They build their nests further up from the ocean, on exposed rocks where the snow has melted away, in clusters, so they get some shared warmth. They travel to and fro to the ocean to secure food for themselves and their little ones. It turns out, that like bears, they take the same path in snow repeatedly which ends up creating highways. And then when tourists go to visit them, we create these temporary trails that invariably intersect their highways. Now, humans are required to maintain a healthy distance from these birds, avian flu is here too. These intersections create memorable moments. During the trip, I saw a handful of curious penguins who would watch us or come to us or sneak up behind us. But most of them didn’t really care for us. They would keep on doing whatever they were doing, micro-napping in between, tens of thousands of times. Grooming and napping. Thinking and napping. Shitting and napping. Sliding and napping. Waddling and napping.
Read the rest of this entry »A new year hike on the Ice
I am no stranger to hiking through poor visibility (Mindego Hill, San Bruno). The sensory deprivation where you disengage and simply focus on the action of walking can bring mental quiet and a new appreciation of an otherwise familiar environment. Here on Antartica, the environment is brand new. Walking on snow and ice with the bulky jacket, boots, and life vest was proving to be an act of controlled slipping while alternately sweating and freezing. There was no rookery at the site, which meant no guano and no smell. Photographs were already proving to be difficult due to lack of familiar objects that define the scale of the environment, like the trees or rivers. So don’t judge. Here is what the camera saw over the course of a two mile hike, climbing perhaps 200 ft.
Read the rest of this entry »Hello Doreo, it is a pleasure to meet you
This is my first friendly chinstrap. I have decided to call him Doreo, derived from a dark oreo. Perhaps he fancies himself as a Mateo, but what he doesn’t know, won’t hurt him. He was curious and came within a few feet. I am assuming Doreo was a he because the colony here had chicks and the mums were all fussing over their chicks. This lot are distinctive with that strap under their proud chins. I wonder what he thought of me, swaddled in an orange parka, looking like a larger and less elegant version of himself.
The chinstraps are a talkative lot. I found myself waiting for over an hour for the humans to stop talking, so I could record the penguins. In the end, I had to cobble together from over 20 separate recordings to eliminate the human noises. While waiting, I got the opportunity to watch them closely. They groom. They squawk. They do some ballistic pooping, including the chicks. Later I learnt that they have specialized physiology that allows them to poop several feet away from their nests (link). They seem to ponder a lot. Later I learnt that they can micronap 10000 times a day (link). I had thought more stones more better, progeny survival being correlated with size of their stone nests. What I saw was preference for specific stones. Either they were just killing time, or like me, they did like the looks of one stone over other. I saw a lot of pink poop. Later I learned that their poop, called guano, colored pink due to a krill diet, is visible from space (link). I learned more about unregulated krill fishery (link) and took the vow again to never eat farmed fish (hello, plant based diet, I come to you in this new year!).
Read the rest of this entry »An epic trip to the end of the world
For normies like us, there is no physical training needed to go to the end of the world. An experienced polar adventure company will take you there, care for your safety, keep you warm and well fed. They will help prepare your packing list and compliment it with polar parkas, hiking poles and boots. They will give you mandatory trainings. They will prepare you for the day and give you educational lectures.
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Locomotoring 