Oakem Boys - Fuzzy, Brown King Penguin Chicks

Almost a year old, these king penguin chicks are called Oakem Boys

Tuesday, November 7 -  Salisbury Plain, South Georgia

We walked left along the beach, through lots of groups of penguins, and through tussock grass with hollow areas where nests had been.  After crossing a stream and marshy area (glad for those rubber boots!), we arrived at the area where the chicks were concentrated.  The chicks are large brown fuzzy balls, almost as big as their parents in size, but clearly immature.  They are called Oakum Boys, because of their color and texture which resembled oakum, the tarred, fiber ropes used for caulking in the sailing ships. Most are begging to be fed and some were being fed by their parents. The adult male and female king penguins and chicks find each other by their unique identifier calls.

The Oakem Boys stay in their own area, in a grouping called a creche

The king penguins are serially monogamous, staying with their mate for the time it takes to rear their single chick, about 14 - 16 months.  During the summer season, you can see the Kings courting, incubating eggs or feeding the larger, year old chicks.  The cycle begins in September to November, when the adult birds come to shore to molt.  Then they return to the sea to feed and come back to the beaches in November and December to mate and lay a single egg.  Both parents share in the incubation. The egg is held on their feet and takes 55 days to hatch. 

The chick stays on the feet of the parent for about a month, and then joins the other chicks in groups called creches.  The chicks are fed krill and small fish by the parents and by April (beginning of winter) are almost full grown.  They lose weight in the winter, as the parents have a harder time feeding them, but gain weight again as summer approaches.  At the time the adult parents need to molt (September), the chicks must go to sea, learn to swim and fend for themselves, at a time when feeding and fishing is good.  And the adults finish their molt and prepare for the breeding and egg laying cycle all over again. Whew!

This adult, looking for its baby chick; you can see the chicks are almost as big as the parents

The noise around the chicks and adults was a symphonic cacophony.  The chicks calls are higher pitched, the adults have more of a whistling quality.  It was fascinating to watch the interplay between adult and chick - and to see the chicks begging for food from any adult that came near it.  We spent a good deal of time watching, and then slowly walking back, encountering many more groups of adult penguins and various species and ages of seals along the way.