Penguin Wrangling

December 12, 2008

We picked up our first two returning satellite tags today. Small transmitters are taped to the feathers on a penguin’s back, bouncing its position off satellites which relay the information to our email. It’s a pretty fancy system that documents the penguins as they swim out to sea and return with food.

Retrieving the transmitters is not so fancy. You’ve got to catch the penguin, and he remembers you from when you first put the transmitter on a couple days before. Still, he will stick by his nest, and, to capture him, all you need to do is walk over and pick him up. Then, you’ve got one very angry penguin on your hands, and getting the tag off his back is a matter of pinning his head in your armpit, holding his feet with one hand, and undoing the tape with the other. Meanwhile, the chicks in the nest are exposed, so we throw a warm hat over them to protect against skuas marauding from the sky. The soft, wriggling hat with penguin fluffballs underneath always brings a smile.

I wrangled my first penguins today. Retrieving the satellite tags was easy enough. Then, we spotted a young bird wandering around a snowfield with a misplaced band which could cause damage, and had to catch it to bend the metal tag back into place. Without a nest to defend, the penguin was as wily as could be. Kirsten and I came at him from both sides, but, on the icy hill, he ran circles around us as we slipped and slid. This called for a net, and Kirsten finally sprinted with a flat-out dive, sweep, and snatch to end the chase. The penguin’s band was easy to mend, and he was a little miffed, but none the worse for wear.