In peru's Atacama Desert, when humboldt penguins go fishing, they are almost gone penguins, and Henry and his wife are full of mud mixed with feces around the nest, like mud dolls. It's a land known as the "dry pole", and the scorching sunlight near the equator heats the surface to 40 degrees Celsius, quickly allowing the soil to clump in its feathers, and in order to survive, they must take a good bath and make themselves look like a penguin. But unfortunately, this means leaving the chicks alone, and the trapper is waiting for this moment. Spot-tailed gulls are common killers of young chicks. The chicks may seem defenseless, but they give the spot-tailed gulls a little surprise, and their last line of defense is full of deterrence - the chicks spew out food from their pockets and attack their opponents. Seagulls did not dare to risk letting the feathers stick, and since this thing did not smell very good, the seagulls finally decided to find some more hygienic food.
Picture 1: The work with the child is tired and dirty, it is time to take a shower
Like the rock-jumping penguins of the Falkland Islands, humboldt penguins who live in the desert are a challenge every time they go to sea. For Henry, a flightless bird, descending the cliff is a piece of cake, as long as you know the skills of sandboarding, you can smoothly descend to the beach. Before they could reach the beach to wash themselves, they had to cross a dangerous obstacle, and their way to the sea was blocked by penguin killers. There are too many sea lions, and there is no other way to go, they must tiptoe to walk, so as not to startle the sleeping giants. Sea lions are the deadliest predators in the sea, but on shore they are tired and lazy, as long as they are careful not to wake them up. Tracy, who took the lead, found a safe path, and the rest of the penguins crept on their heels, like ghosts entering the village, shuttling through the gap between the sleeping giant and the rock. But it was discovered. Fortunately, bloated sea lions are not as agile on the ground as they are in the water, and they pounce on the penguins, only to see the instinctive reaction of the prey, "Ah, so much to eat, let's take a bite!" "In fact, the sea lion has already eaten a full belly of fish, and the penguin is more likely to be squashed than to be eaten at this time." Still, Tracy was bitten by an agile one, but it luckily escaped in time, leaving these rogue guys with a few feathers. If you are unfortunate enough to be caught by a sea lion, it is not only a matter of being eaten, but also the possibility of rape and humiliation.
Figure 2: Humboldt penguins surrounded by sea lions
Passing through the pebble-like flock of sea lions, the penguins make a final dash toward the sea, where they need to take a shower before they can get food. To catch a fish, the feathers must be shiny. The sea is full of fish, but you have to swim fast to catch them. The fish thrive on nutrients brought by the Humboldt Cold Current, which allows the penguins to survive so close to the equator. But it's not just penguins that attract schools of fish, with fur seals appearing near Humboldt penguins. Unlike sea lions, they don't hunt penguins, they just think that hunting penguins is a fun entertainment. Penguins who don't want to be disturbed while fishing must challenge the wide seas and stay away from these boring guys.
Figure 3: Violent and playful fur seals find it fun to flirt with penguins
Sea lions and fur seals, as well as penguins, thrive like all creatures off the coast of South America because of the abundance of food. The Peruvian current, which sends food north to Central America, is a coastline created by volcanoes that flood the ocean's nutrients to feed the planet's largest food chain after hitting volcanic islands. The fertile waters attract tens of millions of sardines, which are a delicacy at a feast, and most of the fish will die. Sea lions strike first, sharks appear, and fur seals and penguins are not far behind. The sardines now gather into balls and protect themselves by spinning at high speed. If left alone, it will become the target of public criticism, and predators know how to make good use of this; in the end, the red swordfish migrate more than 1,000 kilometers to join the feast. The sailfish swim at speeds of up to 80 km/h and usually travel alone, but the foraging activities here have prompted large numbers of red swordfish to gather together. Their sword-like snouts are not used to wear sardine skewers, but to knock sardines unconscious. They'll just feast on this coast for weeks until the sardines, which are hard to die, are gone. Thanks to the Peruvian Currents, Paracas was able to stage a world-class wildlife wonder.
On the desert coast of the Atlantic Ocean, the African penguin Sita stays in its nest on the edge of the desert. For the next ten days, the mother penguin must protect her eggs and chicks in the bitter African sun. The thick feathers, which keep them warm in the icy ocean, become a liability in the heat of 40 degrees Celsius; and the sea bird droppings stuck to the body do not have the slightest sun protection effect, and the mother penguin must keep the eggs and young birds out of the light, and its only way is to use its body to shield the poisonous sun.
The world's oldest desert and ocean meet here, and it's a weird place where everything seems to be in the opposite direction. For some penguin parents, the heat was unbearable, and the neighbors of the Seata left their nests, and its offspring died. But it is not the first person to abandon the nest and the child, nor is it the last person. For millions of years, penguins are slowly adapting to the test of -50 degrees Celsius in Antarctica, not the 40-degree heat of the desert. Now is the hottest time of the day, the young penguins are about to hatch, although it is a pity to give up the previous achievements, but the mother penguins must protect themselves, and the next generation can have hope.
Figure 4: African penguins use their bodies to shade their children to cool down
Figure 5: A mother penguin in excruciating heat abandons her child and goes to the sea to cool off
Hatching eggs is not only responsible for providing shade and warmth to two precious penguin eggs, but also for defending against enemy invasion. Hungry black-backed gulls linger in the heavily guarded penguin area, waiting for an opportunity to strike. Penguin parents have to be vigilant from time to time in order not to become victims. The black-backed gull did not wait for nothing today, and the food was already on the table, and it was the bird egg left by the neighbor. Although heavily guarded, Theta couldn't help but inspect its nest when she saw that the black-backed gull had succeeded, to make sure that the thieves had not stolen its own treasure—it was relieved and relieved to shade the poisonous sun above the bird's eggs with its body; the black-backed gull was ready for a feast. However, before it could open its mouth, a companion came uninvited. These black-backed gulls do not have the consciousness of inviolability of private property, and regardless of whether they come first, robbery and theft are their old professions. Thieves spread their wings to protect their booty. After forcing the robbers away, it began to demonstrate dining techniques. It knows exactly how to knock open a penguin egg, and of course, it's done with the help of stones. Learn to touch a stone with a bird's egg and steal the reward you get as a nutritious meal. Of course, the egg liquid was scattered in half; an eggshell at the foot of the Sita also cracked, but this was not the end of life, but the beginning of a new life. Nukee's second daughter was born by pecking at the eggshell, and little Lucy was born as a weak person, and her brother Louis was two days old. Louis is taller and stronger, more likely to get food and attention, so there is a 40% chance of growing up smoothly; Lucy's chance of survival is so small that 90% of her second son cannot grow into an adult.
Figure 6: Lucy' brother, who was born two days earlier, is much younger and is trampled by her brother during the scramble for food
Just as the first blow, the father of the young penguin who had worked hard for ten days returned, and the mother and son of Theta were saved. But for the mother penguin who has left, is it too late for the husband to come back at this time? The icy Benguela currents have trapped the penguins here, but it is precisely because of the adaptation to the cold that the way of survival has now become an obstacle to survival. Nuki, with his belly full of fish, is passing through the death zone guarded by stubborn South African fur seals. The only way penguins can deal with fur seals is to pull their feet and run, and have a chase with the fur seals. Without the cunning fur seals ambushing the pass, Nuki could return safely. Although tired, Nuki was unharmed, and it was a lucky day. The return of the male penguin soothes its companion, and its next generation, and the seafood feast is a huge temptation and enjoyment. Of course, it is a severe test ahead of the female penguin, because now it is its turn to go out to sea to fish, and the male penguin takes over to take care of their offspring. Most penguins prepare to go to bed before twilight, predators suspend hunting, and the night brings a security barrier to Nuki's home.
On the next busy morning, hundreds of penguins are heading to the waterfront to start fishing. Lucy's loving mother visits her newborn daughter before leaving, and Lucy is still blind and vulnerable. Theta embraced it with a warm, soft body, soothing the weak Lucy, "I'll go catch fish for you, baby!" "Today with a strong father as a nanny, everything is no different from the past. Theta joins the ranks of his companions, a routine familiar to penguins. However, mother penguins are likely to not survive. For a female penguin to go out to sea to fish, she must first outwit the fur seals in the bay. Theta ventures out to sea with the group, and the penguins who go out to sea every day unite and act collectively for safety – the same tactics as their prey sardines. The penguin suddenly noticed the danger, and the young fur seal prepared to attack. These fur seals are in separate formations, attacking alone, but they look at the same territory, and this is the only way for penguins to travel back and forth, so they form a siege. Now, penguin parents have to face a circle of killers. However, the fur seal failed this time. Failure is not only because they are not agile enough, but also because they are young and inexperienced, do not know how to unite and cooperate, and surround and suppress penguins; and the penguin herd is skilled in dealing with them. "However, these brutal outlier fur seals are practicing the art of killing penguins.
They belong to a herd of 400,000 fur seals off the coast of Africa, heavyweight adult male seals weighing 360 kilograms and are brutal and bloody. During the mating season, they are mostly fighting for status, territory and hegemony. But unless it is close to 10 years old and can fight, the lightweight little male fur seal is not an opponent, so in order to escape the attack of the adult sea seal, the young male sea seal chooses to play in the water. However, the game inevitably goes too far, and some fur seals turn the game of penguin chasing into a more brutal evil. Did the penguins stumble into the dead zone? No. Most fur seals make their living by fishing and do not favor penguins. When the young fur seal plays a vicious and brutal game, a penguin that goes to sea every day can never return home, and it is torn open by the fur seal, revealing a pile of fish. In the beginning, fur seals chased penguins like a little bit, played a little too much, and had fun, but after discovering the fresh fish in the penguin's belly, they were like Columbus discovering the New World of america, and some fur seals began to forage in this brutal way, they ate the fish in the penguin's belly, and began to eat the penguin.
Figure 7: Penguins have a hard time escaping from a herd of fur seals, and they even hunt them all the way to the sea
This article is a subsection of the blue ocean chapter of the social science series "Earth Plain Face", the previous section of the article link: 80 tons of strong men carrying 1 ton of eggs and 3 meters of chickens and chickens, but because they are too gentle and dangerous, they were exterminated
"Earth Plain Face" was originally created by the headline number "Hu Qing" and debuted in today's headlines. Without authorization, please do not reprint, copy, excerpt or mirror, etc. "Know life, understand the environment, pay attention to the future", please pay attention to the author's headline number.