{Take the 100 Things challenge!}


001. Penguin Cam


I have been in love with penguins for about as long as I can remember. All penguins from tiny Fairys to Giant Emperors. This love has manifested in many things. Tiny statues of them, calendars, blankets, stuffed animals, various nick-knacks and decorations, icons online, and just about anything else short of owning one(though I have looked at adopting one before but so expensive)

This love has been even greater the past couple of months when Discovery and Sea World rolled out the penguin cam to advertise their Frozen Planet special. I have spent countless hours watching the little ones run around, play, swim, or just sleep. There are 5 penguins represented in this particular Sea World exhibit. Emperor and King penguins, Adélie penguins, Gentoo penguins and Macaroni penguins.

There are also a few famous penguins on the penguin cam. Uno the one fin Adélie penguin who broke his flipper when molting at a young age and it had to be removed(but he gets around great). My personal love, Molty the extremely raggedy Macaroni penguin who really looked horrible after his catastrophic molt for the season(though he's mostly grown back his feathers now). You have the Giant Emperor elders who gather about on the iceberg in the back. The hyperactive Adélies and Gentoos who tend to run around like hyped up 3yr olds. You have the adolescent Emperors and Kings who don't have their color yet but think they are all that. There are about 300 penguins in the exhibit and they are a blast to watch.

The best thing I ever saw while watching the camera happened late at night. Picture one of the giant Emperors sleeping on his belly, butt stuck toward the water/lake but a good distance away. An Adélie comes shooting out of the water and waddles up to the Emperor. The Ad reaches down and pulls the Emp's tail feather with his beak, a disgruntled Emp scooches himself forward, then the Adel waddles forward and grabs the tail again. UP shoots the Emperor turning quickly, flinging his wings out to display his full mighty glory and starts screaming at the little Adel who cowers down. A minute or so of yelling then the Adel rushes back into the water and the Emp shuffles out of camera sight. I still laugh when I think of it, and when it happened I didn't stop laughing for almost an hour.

You can also see the daily washing away of the old snow and adding of the new snow in the morning/afternoon which the penguins love to slide and play through. Also hand feeding and underwater feeding frenzy's when fish get thrown into the water. And Monday's they have a live Q/A on the cam with one of the handlers.

So yes the Penguin Cam is a big addiction of mine, and I will be very sad when it ends, but everyone should check it out before it goes.

You can view it through the discovery site HERE
or through Ustream HERE