biomedicalephemera:

“Wooly Penguin” (Aptenodytes patagonicus - The King Penguin)

The King Penguin is the second-largest penguin out there, second only to the very similar-looking Emperor Penguin. The King Penguin has a longer breeding cycle than the Emperors, with chicks taking almost 16 months to fully fledge and become independent of their parents. As the breeding cycle is so long, their colonies are continually occupied. Since caring for the offspring for over a year takes a massive amount of energy, the adult penguins often leave for weeks at a time to fish and replenish their fat stores enough to feed the youngsters. While their parents are out fishing, the young king penguins form crèches, watched over by just a few adult penguins, who stick close by primarily to protect the crèche from the potential-but-uncommon predators.

Imagine coming upon thousands upon thousands little wooly birds taking up a massive area of an island, with a single adult king penguin waddling around here and there. If you didn’t know about the crèches of other penguin species, why would you suspect anything besides this being a previously-unknown species? The early explorers and naturalists certainly thought as much. The early “Wooly Penguin” representations by Latham and a couple of other ornithological and antarctic naturalists have all been confirmed to have been the juvenile form of the King Penguin.

A General History of Birds, Vol X. John Latham, MD. 1781.

• 4 months ago

270 notes

1. nothinbunny liked this
2. alooalooaloo reblogged this from scientificillustration
3. arcticanstars reblogged this from biomedicalephemera and added:

   biomedicalephemera

4. badowlandthefoxboy liked this
5. wolfkill liked this
6. miklem reblogged this from biomedicalephemera and added:

   was actually a mis-classification of...(Aptenodytes patagonicus)

7. wheredmybodygo reblogged this from scientificillustration
8. enarengo liked this
9. allanphoto reblogged this from scientificillustration and added:

   I LOVE THIS FAT DUMB HAIRY PENGUIN!

10. gunstreet reblogged this from scientificillustration
11. photographydreamer liked this
12. bettabequie reblogged this from scientificillustration
13. juliakhu liked this
14. meiolania liked this
15. livelifealittlelovely liked this
16. allanphoto liked this
17. emilything liked this
18. theropod liked this
19. kuiperdog liked this
20. redmerccruisin reblogged this from scientificillustration
21. maddiemalicex reblogged this from scientificillustration
22. slickerthanrick liked this
23. aviatrixes reblogged this from scientificillustration
24. wixwaxia reblogged this from scientificillustration
25. furfur liked this
26. moshyabrady reblogged this from scientificillustration
27. liam-barrett liked this
28. therodentqueen liked this
29. safetygoggles reblogged this from scientificillustration
30. whaleextract liked this
31. billielita liked this
32. stilltruckin liked this
33. mireiaferron liked this
34. bearberries reblogged this from scientificillustration
35. bearberries liked this
36. efrimmoya liked this
37. ghendel reblogged this from scientificillustration
38. elvenkoge liked this
39. microarray reblogged this from scientificillustration
40. lemontime reblogged this from scientificillustration
41. an-invisible-world liked this
42. lizziefeather liked this
43. kapujanincs liked this
44. lemorga liked this
45. lilacturtl liked this
46. shameshameshameonyou reblogged this from washedawaybyrain
47. mackumackum liked this
48. thebunnypeople liked this
49. thebunnypeople reblogged this from scientificillustration
50. googleberry liked this
51. Show more notesLoading...