World of Wonder: Fairy Penguins -The Toast

World of Wonder: Fairy Penguins

ByAimee Nezhukumatathil

on January 28, 2015 in The Butter

Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s previous World of Wonder columns can be found here.

Just on the heels of National Penguin Awareness Day (January 20), I wanted to turn the spotlight on the smallest of the penguin family: the fairy penguin.

Fairy penguins (also known as little blue penguins) live in rookeries along the coast of Australia and New Zealand. These little guys grow to only about a foot tall and keep their signature indigo feathers waterproof with a special oil from their tail glands. Their pink feet tuck in to help them when they speed through the ocean in search of some anchovy or arrow squid nibbles.

Squid nibbles! Yes, you will have to repress the urge not to baby-talk at them if you see these little blue penguins waddle and turn their pale hazel eyes towards you. But don’t let their size fool you: fairy penguins are tough little workers — spending most of the day hunting for food and returning in their daily dusk-parade back to the rookery.

They return home under cover of night because dogs, foxes, and feral cats are all predators for the fairy penguins. Also, many penguin-watching ‘tours’ will ask tourists to watch from a distance, as fairy penguins have excellent night vision and will wait silently in the ocean if they see giant shadows standing between them and the rookery. If fairy penguins hang out in the ocean at night for too long, it messes up their natural clocks — which tell them when to get food to their babies — and may even alter their reproductive cycles.

Which leads me to the biggest threat to fairy penguins. You guessed it: us. Whole colonies have been affected by careless net fishermen, and many fairy penguins have been found dead and washed ashore with soda can/bottle rings wound tightly around their little blue necks. So far they haven’t appeared on any endangered lists, but I wanted you to know a little about these wee penguins, while they are still out there in abundance — diving deep all day long for juicy krill — and making that dangerous walk back to their burrows to coo and call to their star-lit family.

P.S. For you computer nerds: Tux, the Linux mascot, is actually based on a fairy penguin. Legend has it that one of these penguins bit the finger of the creator of Linux while he was vacationing in Australia. He never forgot the pluck and determination of that creature, and so decided it was the animal to best represent that operating system.

Aimee Nezhukumatathil is the author of three books of poetry, most recently Lucky Fish. She is a professor of English and teaches poetry and environmental lit at a small college in Western New York. She is obsessed with peacocks, jellyfish, and school supplies. Follow her on Twitter: @aimeenez.

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+12 Vote up Vote down

perianwen 105p · 531 weeks ago

Eeee! Tiny penguins! I mean, chinstraps are still the best penguins, but these littles are super-cute and may take second place.

1 reply · active 531 weeks ago

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perianwen 105p · 531 weeks ago

(and how did I not know there is a penguin awareness day? bad me.)

+21 Vote up Vote down

patakhi 83p · 531 weeks ago

I want a coat that's the same colour as their coats. FAIRY PENGUIN BLUE.

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rangiferina 95p · 531 weeks ago

I am DELIGHTED.

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Es_Petal 120p · 531 weeks ago

PENGUINS!

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houblonchouffe 123p · 531 weeks ago

There is a fairy penguin exhibit at the big aquarium in Boston. They are ENCHANTING.

1 reply · active 531 weeks ago

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jennycieplak 120p · 531 weeks ago

IT IS THE BEST THING ABOUT BOSTON.

+16 Vote up Vote down

logicbutton 128p · 531 weeks ago

SO TINY AND CLEVER. CLEVEREST TINY PENGUINS.

+18 Vote up Vote down

Pocket_Witch 122p · 531 weeks ago

I can't believe I didn't the legend of Linus Torvalds and the Fairy Penguin. It combines two things that are very important to my life: Linux and penguins. (Other things on that list: my cat, my books, space exploration, and scones.)

1 reply · active 531 weeks ago

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perianwen 105p · 531 weeks ago

This is an excellent life list.

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Passing_Strange 101p · 531 weeks ago

I got to see the fairy penguins when I was in Australia! A possum bit my boyfriend's finger too, it was an all-around excellent trip for wildlife.

1 reply · active 530 weeks ago

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ramina 119p · 530 weeks ago

I was very sad that I missed these when I was there. I just saw more scrub turkeys than I knew what to do with and they weren't nearly as cute :(

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Tamsyn · 531 weeks ago

If you drive along the south coast of Wellington, New Zealand, there are cute signs that say "SLOW DOWN! Penguins crossing" and "KIA TUPATO! He korora e whiti ana" with a wee picture of two penguins.

2 replies · active 530 weeks ago

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perianwen 105p · 530 weeks ago

*adds another reason to list of reasons to go to NZ*

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keythah 108p · 530 weeks ago

I keep trying to be realistic about NZ but you Kiwis keep telling me stories about it that make me think it's some magical realm.

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briliantmistake 120p · 530 weeks ago

I want a buddy movie wherein a fairy penguin has wacky adventures with a pink fairy armadillo.

1 reply · active 530 weeks ago

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Steph 99p · 530 weeks ago

OMG YES.

+11 Vote up Vote down

Steph 99p · 530 weeks ago

Not only are they super adorable, but one of them bites tech jerkbags?! BEST PENGUINS EVER.

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Chibbin · 530 weeks ago

I'm de-lurking myself here just to say that I am from Wellington NZ, and when I lived in Hataitai there was a little blue penguin in the marina that I would visit on summer evenings and I swear it enjoyed the company. Also my dad rescued one when we were on holiday in Nelson one summer. Ahhh New Zealand, I miss you and your beautiful birds...

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saffiedarling 94p · 530 weeks ago

When I was in primary school we would be sent across to the island that protects my hometown's bay to count the fairy penguins. It was a conservation thing - keeping an eye on the population and the nesting sites.

Well that and a chance for me to climb all over rocks, count penguins, AND hold a clipboard. Best day ever.

3 replies · active 530 weeks ago

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erinmarkel1 51p · 530 weeks ago

Are you from Victor Harbor, by any chance??

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saffiedarling 94p · 530 weeks ago

Not quite, I'm originally from Port Lincoln.

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erinmarkel1 51p · 530 weeks ago

Nice! I worked on Granite Island for a month. Beautiful area.

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tinypaperme 106p · 530 weeks ago

I want one of those so I can tuck it under my arm and carry it everywhere.

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stephiecakes 80p · 530 weeks ago

I didn't realise I could be writing about penguins here! I'M SO BEREFT.

Here are some other fairy penguin things: they hang out at the St Kilda Pier in Melbourne, so please be careful down there! Defs don't poke them or feed them. Their poop is A WEAPON, watch out for that shit. There is a movie coming out this year about a dog who saves some fairy penguins down near Warrnambool. It's called Oddball and it looks adorable, it's based on a true story.

1 reply · active 530 weeks ago

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Katy · 530 weeks ago

100% head to St Kilda Pier for penguins! As a somewhat recent immigrant to Australia I keep having to be reminded that seeing penguins FOR FREE at the beach is a thing that I can do!

Agreed on the no touching of penguins. It really bothers me when people take flash photography of them as well. They have it tough enough trying to hop from rock to rock and falling over all the time.

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scrap princess · 530 weeks ago

On New Years we had a fire on the beach and we made sure to set up away from the penguins, worried we would scare them , but about 2 am one came right over to the fire and said hi and hung out for awhile. It was freaking adorable. They alternate between make cute cheep cheeps and dinosaur growls.

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rachelrayner 0p · 530 weeks ago

Once when I was a kiddie we saw The Bird Lady on the beach, taking two little blues for a swim in a rock pool and it was MAGICAL. (Auckland, New Zealand, but if you know "The Bird Lady" you knew that.)

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erinmarkel1 51p · 530 weeks ago

When I was in Australia i spent a month studying these little guys. ADORABLE. It never occurred to me until I got there that they might bite, but the adults are pretty fierce. (The babies were mostly just confused.)

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mymagicplacenta 58p · 530 weeks ago

When I was living with my boyfriend on the coast in New Zealand, in a wee bach (NZ term for hut / basic cottage by the sea) with no electricity but an incredible wild coastline on our front yard, a pair of little blue penguins, as we call them, nested under our house. Directly under our bed. I would sit in the evenings and watch them make their way waddling up our lawn, and if I moved and scared them, they would erupt into this cartoon-esque panic, running in circles flapping their little flippers, falling over head over heels, scrambling back down the beach. But they'd come up every night and make their way under the house (once I found one asleep in my snowboarding boot, all snug). Through the thin floorboards we would hear them call to each other, weirdly, like screeching goblins. For cute birds they have a hell of a crazy call. Then, one night, we heard them call as usual at 2am (like 2 feet beneath us) and then, in a moment of quiet, a wee tiny, soft call we hadn't heard before. I swear we felt as proud at that moment as if we had become parents ourselves. It all went downhill from there though. The smell of regurgitated fish became fairly strong as they fed their growing chick every night. Eh, we loved them though.

1 reply · active 530 weeks ago

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Apollonia 116p · 530 weeks ago

This has become my life goal.

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