The parents
share the chores---guarding the eggs, protecting the
young, and bringing home food for the the baby chicks.
The adult goes to sea to eat anchovies, squid and krill
and then he or she returns to the burrow to regurgitate
the food to feed the babies. The babies grow quickly.
The babies
are covered with a thick layer of soft brown down resembling
fur. Eventually, their down is replaced with their first
feathers allowing them to head for the high seas in
January or February, ahead of their parents. The babies
return to the Seno Otway penguin colony when they are
a year old to molt and grow their adult feathers. They
don't nest until they are three years old.
Kathy Gursky
2000-2003©
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