Not included in the previous set of King penguin images is one of an adult King penguin with it’s baby chick still nestled in the brood pouch. I have included it below. For a creature which ends up as beautiful as a King penguin, the tiny chicks are downright ugly, as you can see.

A King penguin with its chick, just emerged from the brood pouch

When we all looked at the image in detail here aboard the ship, we noticed a remarkable resemblance between the chick and one of our favorite TV villains – Davros, the commander of the evil Daleks on the Dr. Who television series.

Davros - Leader of the evil Daleks on the Dr. Who television series from the BBC)

So, King penguin chick – just ugly or a Davros clone? You decide.

(Davros image obtained from http://www.bbc.co.uk/norfolk/content/image_galleries/galleries_davros_gallery.shtml)

The video upload seemed to work pretty well, so here’s a longer clip of an Adelie penguin chick chasing an adult to get fed. Never knew penguins could run so fast and be so nimble.

I was brave and decided to try and make a short YouTube video with a clip of an Adelie penguin chick feeding. See below.

This was shot with the video mode of my Nikon D300s camera.

Penguin chicks depend on their parents to feed them by regurgitating food the parent has eaten.

Early in the chick’s life the two parents alternate between keeping the chick warm and protected and going out to find food. As a chick gets older, both parents go out to find food to bring back to the chick. If the parents take too long to return, chicks may pursue other adults in the hopes of getting a meal, but adult penguins rarely will feed a chick not their own.

Below are some pictures showing some of these relationships. I am also attempting to make a short feeding video clip available. I’ll post a new note if that works out.

An Adelie chick approaches an adult for food

The adult Adelie rebuffs the chick

The adult Adelie voices its displeasure at the pushy chick

An adult Adelie penguin nips a chick begging for food

A skua is a sizable predatory bird, usually feeding on penguin chicks and their eggs. Several skuas we encountered at Red Rocks Ridge were nesting – getting too close to their chicks (about 40 feet as I discovered) resulted in raucous calls from the parents, followed by them taking flight and dive bombing the intruders (me, in a couple of cases). I kept them at bay until I could get further away by keep my tripod a bit higher than my head. They never made physical contact, however.

Two skua wait for feeding opportunities

A skua with its chick (at left) - well colored for camouflage

Skuas fight over a baby penguin carcass in a three-way match

Skuas squabble over scraps