Monday, August 20, 2012

So this is segadarkperiod and today i will be discussing the king penguin. I know at my youtube account it's all about video games and crap but let's get serious i like frickin video games but seriously i have read over 300 pages of the 2008 illustrated edition of Charles Darwin the origin of species. And sorry but let's get started the king penguin lives the Falkland islands and beyond. The Falkland islands are in the southern frickin ocean. The King penguin is closely related to the emperor penguin of so cold  antarctica the coldest,most barren, and holds 60 % of the freshwater on earth. Anyways it's diet is fish and squid. Here is the breeding habit's.
The King Penguin is able to breed at three years of age, although only a very small minority (5% recorded at Crozet Islands) actually do then; the average age of first breeding is around 6 years.[25] King Penguins are serially monogamous. They have only one mate each year, and stay faithful to that mate. However, fidelity between years is only about 29%.[26] The long breeding cycle may contribute to this low rate.[27]
The King Penguin has an unusually prolonged breeding cycle, taking some 14–16 months from laying to offspring fledging.[28] Although pairs will attempt to breed annually, they are generally only successful one year in two, or two years in three in a triennial pattern on South Georgia.[24] The reproductive cycle begins in September to November, as birds return to colonies for a prenuptial moult. Those that were unsuccessful in breeding the previous season will often arrive earlier. They then return to the sea for three weeks before coming ashore in November or December.[29] The female penguin lays one pyriform (pear-shaped) white egg weighing 300 g (⅔ lb).[30] It is initially soft, but hardens and darkens to a pale greenish colour. It measures around 10 × 7 cm (3.9 × 2.8 in).[30] The egg is incubated for around 55 days with both birds sharing incubation in shifts of 6–18 days each. Hatching may take up to 2–3 days to complete, and chicks are born semi-altricial and nidicolous. In other words, they have only a thin covering of down and are entirely dependent on their parents for food and warmth.[31] The young chick is brooded in what is called the guard phase, spending its time balanced on its parents' feet and sheltered by its pouch.[31] During this time, the parents alternate every 3–7 days, one incubating while the other forages. This period lasts for 30–40 days before the chicks form crèches, a group of many chicks together. A penguin can leave its chick at a crèche while it fishes as a few adult penguins stay behind to look after them. Other varieties of penguins also practice this method of communal care for offspring.
By April the chicks are almost fully grown, but lose weight by fasting over the winter months, gaining it again during spring in September. Fledging then takes place in late spring/early summer.
King Penguins form huge breeding colonies; for example, the colony on South Georgia Island at Salisbury Plain holds over 100,000 breeding pairs and the one at St. Andrew's Bay over 100,000 birds. Because of the long breeding cycle, colonies are continuously occupied.
The King Penguin feeds its chicks by eating a fish, digesting it slightly and regurgitating the food into the chick's mouth.
Because of their large size, King Penguin chicks take 14–16 months before they are ready to go to sea. This is markedly different from smaller penguins, who rear their chicks through a single summer when food is plentiful. King Penguins time their mating so the chicks will develop over the harshest season for fishing. In this way, by the time the young penguins are finally mature enough to leave their parents, it is summer when food is plentiful and conditions are more favorable for the young to survive alone.

No comments:

Post a Comment