Patagonian Penguins

Visiting a Penguin Colony in Southern Chile (December 1996)

The Otway Sound in southern Chile is the summer home of thousands of Magellanic penguins. These "warm weather" penguins are recognized by white rings around the face and chest.

    Penguins were everywhere.  Some rested on the beach, cleaning themselves after a day at sea.  Others marched like teams of tuxedoed soldiers across the short grass.  Parent penguins and their chicks peeked out of their underground burrows. We were in southern Chile visiting a nesting colony of Magellanic penguins at the edge of the Otway Sound (Seno Otway) on the Magellan Strait.  Each spring more than 1000 of these plump seabirds come ashore to this windswept plain to mate, lay eggs, and bring up their young.  Although we were bundled in warm coats to protect us from the chilly wind, the penguins seemed to be enjoying the long hours of summer sunshine.

On the Beach

     As we watched the penguins waddle across the grass they reminded us of comical waiters. Unruffled by the constant winds that sweep across the southern tip of South America, penguins are well equipped to withstand the harsh weather of this region. Luckily for us, the weather on the day we visited was mild and sunny.  Because we were so far south and it was near the summer solstice, the sun remained high into the sky until well into the evening.


 Don't Touch the Penguins!

Magellanic penguins stand about two feet tall and weigh about seven pounds. They live along the coasts of Chile, Argentina and the Falkland Islands.  They are named after the explorer, Ferdinand Magellan, who saw them on his historic trip around the world between 1519 and 1522.

Obeying the sign that warned us not to touch the penguins, we followed the winding path through the colony. A fence separated us from the nesting area.  The birds paid little attention to us and went about their business cleaning their nests, tending their chicks, or making their way to and from the water.

The Southern Hemisphere spring begins in September and that is when the penguins begin to arrive at their nesting colonies.  Waddling up the shore on sturdy webbed feet the penguins search for good nest sites.  Digging in the soft ground, they make a nesting burrow. Once a penguin pair has mated they stay together for their whole lives.   Older pairs usually return to the same nest hole that they used the year before. 

Penguin Chicks

Penguins preen their feathers to keep them clean and waterproof.  The fluffy chick on the right will get its adult feathers in a few weeks.

Six weeks after eggs have been laid, they are ready to hatch.  The newly hatched chicks weigh about three ounces and look something like furry gray tennis balls.  Like all baby birds, penguin chicks are always hungry.  For the rest of the summer, their parents take turns going to sea to catch fish to feed them.  When the adult bird returns to the burrow, it coughs up partly digested food and feeds the chicks.

Young penguins come out of the burrow for the first time when they are about six weeks old.  As we walked through the colony we could see some of the young birds peering cautiously out of their nest holes.  Others stood by the entrance with their parents.  By the time young penguins are eight weeks old they are completely covered with smooth, oily feathers.  Then they are ready to join their parents in the water.

Penguin parents watch over their chicks closely.  They have to protect them from foxes, large seabirds and other animals that might harm them.  We saw a Patagonian fox, or zorro, bound across the shore with a conger eel in its mouth.

A Memorable Visit
We visited the penguin colony in December when it was bustling with activity.  But by March all the penguins would go back to sea for the winter.  Then all would be quiet on the shores of  Otway Sound until the next nesting season.  We were lucky to visit during the few months that the penguins spend on land. 

Getting there: We flew from Santiago, Chile, to Punta Arenas, Chile’s most southern port city.  We were on our way to Torres del Paine National Park.  After renting a car (actually a small Toyota truck) at the airport, we stopped at the penguin colony on our way from the airport to Punta Arenas where we spent our first night before heading north.  A sign on the highway marked the dirt road that led to the penguin colony.

Penguins at the Zoo: You don’t have to travel to South America to see a breeding colony of Magellanic penguins.  Instead, go to the San Francisco Zoo.  Every spring, you can see penguin parents and their fluffy chicks standing outside their nest holes.  I wrote about these penguins in my book Penguin (Morrow Junior Books, 1988), illustrated with photos by Richard Hewett.  It is out of print but you may be able to find it in the library.  It inspired my visit to the colony at Seno Otway when I went to Patagonia with my family several years later.