Pinguins info - penguin - information news archive about penguins

Penguin news from January - March 2005

Look out: These are older news flashes, so it's quite possible some links/sources doesn't work properly anymore!

Penguins starve to death (New Zealand - 26 January 2005)

Little blue penguin chicks at the Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony are starving to death because of a shortage of food at sea. Staff became concerned 2 weeks ago when monitoring showed chicks were losing weight as their parents were unable to feed them adequately.
Spotted shags were also affected and had abandoned their breeding season.

Source: NZ Herald
Phillip Island penguins under treat (Australia - 31 January 2005)

Phillip Island's penguin chicks are dying because their parents are forced to travel too far for food, a researcher said today.
Penguin biologist Andre Chiaradra (Chiaradra) said early signs showed this breeding season was worrying for the southern Victorian colony of 60,000 little penguins. Official breeding figures would not be known until late in February but researchers on the island had seen many dead chicks and others that were underweight, Dr Chiaradra said.
He said penguin parents were travelling for three or four days in Port Phillip Bay to search for food for chicks who need feeding daily.
Dr Chiaradra said warmer waters around Phillip Island may have driven some food sources away.

Source: News.com.au
"La Marche de l'Empereur" (January 2005)

Luc Jacquet made a beautiful, new film about emperor penguins.
It's a French film, released on 26th January 2005 and it shows in several cinema's in France and Belgium.
It will be shown in other countries too, later this year (see official website).
English title: "The Emperor's Journey"

Source:
Official, French website of the film: Luc Jacquet
Pictures, making of and showings in cinema's in France: Allocine (in French)
Trailer and Belgian cinema's where it plays: Cinebel (in Dutch) and Cinebel (in French)
"Rare penguin visitor takes a detour" (2 February 2005)

The first king penguin known to visit New Zealand shores in 75 years has turned up in Buller. The adult penguin seemed to be in good health. The Department of Conservation is monitoring it and hope that it will make its own way home. King penguin normally live on subantarctic islands south of New Zealand and on Macquarie Island.

Source: NZ Herald
A lot of commotion about gay penguins in German zoo (16 February 2005)

In Bremerhaven Zoo in Germany, they imported four female Humboldt penguins from Sweden in an effort to tempt its gay penguins to go straight. DNA tests had shown the three of the five penguin pairs at the zoo were male-male - explaining why the birds had been exhibiting courtship behaviour for years without producing any chicks.

The experiment sparked outrage from gay and lesbian groups worldwide

Source: Bremerhaven Zoo (Eng)
Zoo tempts gay penguins to go straight - Ananova (Eng)
Females flown in to p-p-pick up 'gay' penguins - The Guardian (Eng)
Stern (GE)
Glaube Aktueel (GE)
Hamburger Morgenpost (GE)
'Avian Cholera to blame for South Georgia penguin deaths.' (22 February 2005)

Late last year, hundreds of chinstrap penguins died on South Georgia. This has now been blamed on the bacterium Avian Cholera. No reports of further mortalities in chinstraps or other wildlife on the island have been received. However, the South Georgia Government wants to determine whether it was an isolated occurence or if the bacterium normally is present on the island.

Source: Merco Press
Penguin exhibit enlargement planned at Schwerin zoo (Germany - 24 February 2005)

The zoo of Schwerin (GE) plans to enlarge the humboldt penguin enclosure in 2006. At the moment they have 20 breeding pairs with a lot of breeding success. More then 100 chicks hatched and sometimes moved to other zoos, to save the species, which is endangered in the wild.
Under the Motto "Plitsch , Platsch,. Pinguin", they celebrate a children party on July 17th, 2005 with a penguin parade.

Source: Schwerin News (GE)
'Best year ever for Falklands penguins!' (28 February 2005)

According to Falklands Conservation, gentoo penguins on the Falklands Islands have had the most successful breeding season since 1986 when records began. Rockhopper and magellanic penguins on the Islands also had good breeding seasons, with large increases in both populations and chicks per breeding pair since the 2003-04 season.

Source: Falklands Conservation

Penguin news from April - June 2005

Look out: These are older news flashes, so it's quite possible some links/sources doesn't work properly anymore!

Penguins saved from giant iceberg (Antarctica - 5 April 2005)

According to Falklands Conservation, gentoo penguins on the Falklands Islands have had the most successful breeding season since 1986 when records began. Rockhopper and magellanic penguins on the Islands also had good breeding seasons, with large increases in both populations and chicks per breeding pair since the 2003-04 season.

Source: CBBC Newsround and ABC News Online
Emperor penguins premier at Yilan Green Film Fest (6 April 2005)

French director Luc Jacquet has chosen the Yilan Green Film Festival as the venue for the Asian premiere of his documentary film "The Emperor's Journey". The film follows the year in the lives of emperor penguins in Antarctica and it has already been a hit in France.

Source: ET News
Pinguinale2006 in Wuppertal (Germany - May 2005)

The Wuppertal Zoo (GE) exist almost 125 years. And the zoo foundation celebrates this year its 50th anniversary. The foundation collects money in benefit of the zoo and their animals. This year for example, they donated 750 000 Euro for a new exhibit for the african penguins. They will build a faithful imitation of an african coast on 400 m², which starts in May 2005 and should be completed at the end of this year.

They also have a great idea to celebrate the two anniversaries: Pinguinale 2006 (in German).
Companies, foundations, restaurants, groups etc can order a rough sculpture, a 1.80 m tall penguin, symbol of the zoo, and paint it as they like, with a lot of phantasy.
Those decorated statues (like Obelix, waiter, ...?) will be displayed on several places in the town Wuppertal(GE) during the year as publicity for those groups and the zoo.
At the zoos anniversary, August 16th, 2006, they (hopefully more then 125 models) will go on parade through the town to the zoo. A big party will take place with the penguins and all the other partygoers.

Source: Westdeutsche Zeitung (GE) and Pinguinale2006 (GE)
March of the penguins (May 2005)

The new film (also known under the title "The emperor's journey") about emperor penguins, directed by Luc Jacquet, will be released in the USA on June 24th, 2005.
Studio: Warner Independent Pictures
Director: Luc Jacquet
Screenwriter: Luc Jacquet, Michel Fessler
Starring: Morgan Freeman (narrator)
Genre: Documentary
Plot Summary: In the Antarctic, every March since the beginning of time, the quest begins to find the perfect mate and start a family. This courtship will begin with a long journey - a journey that will take them hundreds of miles across the continent by foot, in freezing cold temperatures, in brittle, icy winds and through deep, treacherous waters. They will risk starvation and attack by dangerous predators, under the harshest conditions on earth, all to find true love.

I really recommend it to all animal lovers, especially penguinlovers !

Source: Pictures and links to trailer can be found on a special page, I extra made for it: click here
Official, English website and trailer of the film: March of the penguins
Musical 'Napoleon, keizer van Antarctica' (Belgium - 7 June 2005)

Last weekend(27/28 May 2005), the children at the local primary school "De Maaskei" in Kinrooi (BE) celebrated their school festival.
They made a huge success of the children musical "Napoleon, keizer van Antarctica" (meaning "Napoleon, emperor of Antarctica").

Source: Pictures of the musical.

Penguin news from July - September 2005

Look out: These are older news flashes, so it's quite possible some links/sources doesn't work properly anymore!

A little penguin is released back into the wild. (8 September 2005)

Source: Planet Ark

Penguin news from October - December 2005

Look out: These are older news flashes, so it's quite possible some links/sources doesn't work properly anymore!

Penguin pooh study tops Ig-Nobel prize (8 October 2005)

A scientific team won the "Fluid Dynamics" section of the Ig-Nobel awards for their study that calculated the pressures created when penguins pooh. The spoof prizes are awarded by science humour magazine Annals of Improbable Research.

Source: tvnz
Penguin evolution linked to shifting icebergs (8 November 2005)

The breakup of giant icebergs may have forced minor evolutionary changes in penguins over the past 6,000 years, a new study suggests. The Antarctic iceberg chunks, which break off the continent now and then, are thought to have blocked the swim paths of Adelie penguins returning home to their colonies. Some of the penguins were forced to become immigrants in other colonies, where they established new homes and interbred with the locals.

Source: MasseyNews, MSNBC and Kennislink (NL)
Penguins marching slowly toward recovery in Argentina, experts say (2 December 2005)

Biologists say the Magellanic penguin population in the Patagonia region of Argentina, which has declined by an estimated 35 percent since the 1980s, is now stabilizing. While this is good news, the penguins still have obstacles to their long-term survival.

Source: National Geographic News