On Thursday, Brent, Christian, and I went to see some penguins at Magdalena Island. It was about a two hour boat ride there, and we had about an hour to wander around, getting acquainted with the locals. They were a formal lot, most of them wearing tuxedos.
They were Magellanic penguins. Cute little guys, about a foot and a half tall. One of them tried to eat my shoe. I found out something cool about penguins. They're white on the front and black on the back. Why? Predators seeing them from the bottom while they're swimming see white, which blends in with the light of the sky. Predators seeing them from the top see black, which blends in with the dark of the ocean. So their coloration is actually a way of protecting them from getting eaten. Cool, eh?
These penguins raise their chicks in burrows to protect them from predators. They dig them out with their feet. We saw one penguin digging, dirt was flying everywhere.
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