South Georgia Voyage Notes 8; The Oakum Boys Party.

Imagine a birthday party with thousands of kids blowing their party whistles simultaneously, or the noise from Chepauk cricket stadium on the morning of the first day of an India /Australia cricket Test match, where almost everyone is blowing and a party whistle. That’s what a King Penguin colony sounds like as seen here !!

It would not be inaccurate to say that the King Penguin is the King of the species that occupy South Georgia, at least going by the sheer numbers. Large colonies of them dot the landscape in many beaches like St Andrews Bay ( 250000 pairs ), Gold Harbour (30000 Pairs ) and Salisbury Plain (100000 Pairs ). The large presence for breeding also means a large army of chicks. The breeding cycle for the King Penguin is a long one that straddles a time frame of more than a year, usually 14 to 16 months. They indulge in prenuptial moulting, where they shed their feathers for new ones – a process that takes a month and during which the Penguin starves and feeds only on snow. Once they acquire new feathers, they undertake a foraging trip to feed themselves and return to find a partner to mate, to whom they remain monogamous through that breeding cycle. A single egg is carefully nurtured and hatched and the newborn chick is also carefully nurtured in a shared way by the parents in the warmth of the feathers between their feet. In between this either parent goes out to sea to forage and bring food for the chick. When the chick is older, they develop a brown down coat that keeps them protected during the winter that is just setting in. The parents then leave them independently and-and go off to sea sometimes together to forage, These independent chicks at this stage are called the Oakum Boys, so named by the sailors who likened them to the colour of Oakum, a substance used to caulk the joints in the timber in the boats.

As a social behaviour, The Oakum Boys form large groups among themselves appropriately called Creches to protect themselves against predators. These creches are guarded by one or more adult penguins and in response to any threat the creche moves in unison-

Many of the chicks don’t survive the winter and they die of starvation, especially if the parents don’t come back after their trip in time. Many hungry oakum boys were trying their luck with a penguin that is obviously not its parent and often they were rudely pushed away, resulting in a dejected oakum boy!

On the occasions that they found their parent, their joy and the subsequent care they received was obvious –

The Raucous noise created by the colony is a result of all the calling from the adults and chicks resembles a party that I referred to in the start of the post. The amazing thing is they manage to locate their mates or chicks with their calls and the responding calls they hear. As a result, a call is a usually a deep filling of the lungs, followed by the call and then an immediate lowering of the head to listen for a response as seen here

During the time of our visit, the breeding cycle of the previous year was maturing and, therefore, the large number of Oakum boys who had survived the winter and were ready to shed their brown downs and fledge. The new breeding season was just about starting and that explained a large number of moulting penguins.

Observing and recording the individual behaviour of these species provided for some memorable moments during the trip that I have presented through this post.