How NatGeo Photographer Paul Nicklen Got "Adopted" By a Deadly Antarctica Predator
National Geographic photographer Paul Nicklen is one lucky man. Not only did he get to swim and take photos of a 12-foot leopard seal in the Antarctic (and didn’t get eaten), he was actually "adopted" by it!
I slipped into the water, terrified of what might happen, and I swam up to this leopard seal. My legs were shaking and I had dry mouth. Right away she dropped the penguin. She came up to me and she opened her mouth … and her head is twice as wide as a grizzly bear’s head. She’s huge. She took my whole head and my camera inside her head and did this threat display.
But then the most remarkable thing happen. She went off and got me a live penguin. She came up and she started to feed me a penguin. She kept letting these live penguins go and the penguin would shoot past me and she’d look disgusted as she go by me. She did this over and over.
And then I think she realized that I was this useless predator in her ocean, probably going to starve to death and I think she became quite panicked and she got me weak penguins then dead penguins …
Hit play or go to Link [YouTube]
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Famous Same Sex Penguin Couple Calls it Quits
It seems like no long term relationship is safe these days. First it’s Jon and Kate and now sadly it’s Harry and Pepper.
Harry and Pepper are a pair of adorable male Magellan penguins at the San Francisco Zoo. They have been together for the last 6 years and even adopted an egg together in 2008. All was going well in their relationship until a newly widowed female penguin entered the picture and poor old Pepper was left out in the cold.
Last year, the pair was allowed to incubate and hatch an egg another penguin had laid. “Of all of the parents that year, they were the best,” Brown said. “They took very good care of their chick. He ended up being the largest chick on the island.” One could say that all seemed to be going swimmingly with Harry and Pepper.
Enter the recently widowed Linda, who has long had a reputation of sorts, according to Brown.
Several years ago, she left her longtime companion and moved in with much older Fig just hours after Fig’s partner passed away, Brown said. “That was the fastest we’d ever seen penguins move on,” he said. “To be completely anthropomorphizing, Linda seems conniving. She’s got her plan. I don’t think she was wanting to be a single girl for too long.”
This year, within weeks of Fig passing away in winter, Harry was seen in Fig’s old burrow spending time with Linda, Brown said. Then one day, Harry and Linda approached Pepper’s pen and confronted Pepper. Harry began attacking Pepper violently and the three ultimately had to be separated, Brown said.
(Photo: Cindy Chew / The Examiner)
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Students Win Race with Penguin-Shaped Submarine
Students at the University of Quebec won a competition of human-powered submarines by basing their design on the body and movement of a penguin:
Team OMER, composed of students from the school’s Ecole de Technologie Superieure in Montreal, drove two propellerless submarines to victory (winning $1,000 per race in the process) using thrust delivered from a pair of carbon fiber oars resembling the wings of the tuxedoed bird.
OMER 6, a one-person submarine, achieved a speed of 4.916 knots (5.65 miles per hour), beating the previous 4.642-knot (5.34-mile-per-hour) speed record for subs without a propeller. The two-person OMER 7 sub hit a top speed of 5.133 knots (5.90 miles per hour).
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Now on Satellite: Penguin Poop!
Scientists have found a new way to track colonies of penguins in the Antarctic by satellite. Normal satellite imaging doesn’t show penguins well because of their natural camouflage. So instead, British penguin-trackers are looking at penguin poop.
“We can’t see actual penguins on the satellite maps because the resolution isn’t good enough,” said mapping expert Peter Fretwell. “But during the breeding season the birds stay at a colony for eight months. The ice gets pretty dirty and it’s the guano stains that we can see.”
The method helped scientists identify 38 penguin colonies — of those, 10 were new. Of previously known colonies, six had re-located and six were not found.
Link -via Simply Left Behind
(image credit: Flickr user Carles-FlashOnTheBlog)
Previously at Neatorama: Penguin Poop.
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Bionic Penguins And More
Festo, has been shown here on Neatorama several times in the past and each time their robotics and bizarre creations blew our collective minds…our Neatorama Hivemind to be exact…but that’s a story for another time. 
In this video you’ll get to see creepy blue LED robotic penguins swimming about in a large pool. Also, you’ll see it’s more lighter cousin who probably is the envy of every penguin in being able to fly/float and much more in terms of various robotic creations. Really fascinating stuff!
More info here – Link
For older Neatorama Festo links:
Festo’s Upside-Down Hot Air Balloon
AquaJelly and AirJelly
Air Ray: The Blimp With Wings
Meet Aqua Ray
Festo Airic’s Robotic Arm
Floating Fish Blimp
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Gay Penguins Turned Out to be the Best Parents in the Zoo
Remember the gay penguins that got ejected from their colony because they were trying to steal eggs from other penguins? Well, the zookeepers gave the couple two eggs laid by an inexperienced penguin mom … and it turns out they became the best parents in the zoo!
‘We decided to give them two eggs from another couple whose hatching ability had been poor and they’ve turned out to be the best parents in the whole zoo,’ said one of the keepers.
‘It’s very encouraging and if this works out well we will try to arrange for them to become real parents themselves with artificial insemination.’
Wildlife experts at the park explain that despite being gay the three-year-old male birds are still driven by an urge to be fathers.
‘One of the responsibilities of being a male adult is looking after the eggs. Despite the fact that they can’t have eggs naturally, it does not take away their biological drive to be a parent,’ said one.
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Can't Trust Those Gay Penguins ...
Here’s why you can never trust gay penguins …
Keepers have segregated the couple after they caught them trying to trick straight birds into parting with their offspring by placing round stones at their feet and then running off with an egg.
Experts at the Polarland Park in Harbin, north east China, say that despite being gay the three year old male birds are still driven by an urge to be dads.
Previously on Neatorama: Gay Penguins Say No Thanks to Females
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