King Penguin Swims Thousands of Kilometers to Molt

There are about 120,000 king penguin pairs on Macquarie Island, which is about halfway between Tasmania and the Antarctic. (AFP)
There are about 120,000 king penguin pairs on Macquarie Island, which is about halfway between Tasmania and the Antarctic. (AFP)
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King Penguin Swims Thousands of Kilometers to Molt

There are about 120,000 king penguin pairs on Macquarie Island, which is about halfway between Tasmania and the Antarctic. (AFP)
There are about 120,000 king penguin pairs on Macquarie Island, which is about halfway between Tasmania and the Antarctic. (AFP)

A king penguin has made its way from the Antarctic region to the South Australian coastline, where it is likely to stay on land to undergo a “catastrophic molt”.

Members of a local birdwatching society were surprised when they spotted the bird on a beach, thousands of kilometers from its usual habitat, The Guardian reported.

Each year, the penguins lose all their feathers. Then, over two or three weeks, they replace them with sleek, freshly oiled, waterproof ones. For those weeks, they have no protection from the icy waters so they seek land – but usually much closer to home.

The chair of Friends of Shorebirds South East, Jeff Campbell, was part of a group of eight people doing a bird survey along the Coorong beach when they spotted the penguin.

“We came across a penguin coming up out of the water and on to the beach, a large penguin. It came right up to us. It was displaying to us. It made a braying call, quite loud, then bowed to us,” he said.

“It did it several times. It came right up to us, right beside us. You shouldn’t approach these things but it approached us,” he added.

Campbell said it was “quite a surprise” but not totally unheard of – a king penguin was spotted at Port MacDonnell, near Mount Gambier, in 2004.

The bird looked “very healthy, very chubby”, he said. King penguins are close relatives of the larger emperor penguins, but prefer the subantarctic islands to the Antarctic ice shelf.

A Macquarie island conservation foundation describes them as “curious, social birds that breed in colonies”. Like the emperor penguin, they lay a single egg covered with a brood pouch. There are about 120,000 king penguin pairs on Macquarie Island, which is about halfway between Tasmania and the Antarctic.

“From time to time penguins do come up to the mainland ... often they’re coming in to molt. They come ashore for their catastrophic molt,” said Dr. Julie McInnes, from the University of Tasmania’s Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, Ecology and Biodiversity.

It’s called a catastrophic molt because, unlike other birds that might shed some feathers, penguins lose all of them. So, they come ashore for two to three weeks. They lose all their feathers and replace them with new, waterproof feathers.

“They come in fat and well rounded, because they’re fasting for those weeks when they’re ashore. Energetically it’s quite costly to molt so they just need to sit quietly with their feet in water, that’s their ideal set-up,” McInnes said.

She said the Australian mainland was the furthest reach of their range, and that while global heating was causing changes in penguins’ distribution, that would probably cause them to seek cooler water. It could also just be that the penguin got off track looking for land – usually they would molt on their colony’s island.

“If it’s molting it can’t go into the water, so it’s unfortunate that it found a fairly populous spot,” McInnes said. Anyone wanting to see it should do so from a distance, she said, and not risk scaring it into the water.



Greece's 'Instagram Island' Santorini nears Saturation Point

Tourists queue as they wait to take a picture from one of the balconies. Aris Oikonomou / AFP
Tourists queue as they wait to take a picture from one of the balconies. Aris Oikonomou / AFP
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Greece's 'Instagram Island' Santorini nears Saturation Point

Tourists queue as they wait to take a picture from one of the balconies. Aris Oikonomou / AFP
Tourists queue as they wait to take a picture from one of the balconies. Aris Oikonomou / AFP

One of the most enduring images of Greece's summer travel brand is the world-famous sunset on Santorini Island, framed by sea-blue church domes on a jagged cliff high above a volcanic caldera.
This scene has inspired millions of fridge magnets, posters, and souvenirs -- and now the queue to reach the viewing spot in the clifftop village of Oia can take more than 20 minutes, said AFP.
Santorini is a key stopover of the Greek cruise experience. But with parts of the island nearing saturation, officials are considering restrictions.
Of the record 32.7 million people who visited Greece last year, around 3.4 million, or one in 10, went to the island of just 15,500 residents.
"We need to set limits if we don't want to sink under overtourism," Santorini mayor Nikos Zorzos told AFP.
"There must not be a single extra bed... whether in the large hotels or Airbnb rentals."
As the sun set behind the horizon in Oia, thousands raised their phones to the sky to capture the moment, followed by scattered applause.
For canny entrepreneurs, the Cycladic island's famous sunset can be a cash cow.
One company advertised more than 50 "flying dresses", which have long flowing trains, for up to 370 euros ($401), on posters around Oia for anyone who wishes to "feel like a Greek goddess" or spruce up selfies.
'Respect Oia'
But elsewhere in Oia's narrow streets, residents have put up signs urging visitors to respect their home.
"RESPECT... It's your holiday... but it's our home," read a purple sign from the Save Oia group.
Shaped by a volcanic eruption 3,600 years ago, Santorini's landscape is "unique", the mayor said, and "should not be harmed by new infrastructure".
Around a fifth of the island is currently occupied by buildings.
At the edge of the cliff, a myriad of swimming pools and jacuzzis highlight Santorini is also a pricey destination.
In 2023, 800 cruise ships brought some 1.3 million passengers, according to the Hellenic Ports Association.
Cruise ships "do a lot of harm to the island", said Chantal Metakides, a Belgian resident of Santorini for 26 years.
"When there are eight or nine ships pumping out smoke, you can see the layer of pollution in the caldera," she said.
Cruise ship limits
In June, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis floated the possibility of capping cruise ship arrivals to Greece's most popular islands.
"I think we'll do it next year," he told Bloomberg, noting that Santorini and tourist magnet Mykonos "are clearly suffering".
"There are people spending a lot of money to be on Santorini and they don’t want the island to be swamped," said the pro-business conservative leader, who was re-elected to a second four-year term last year.
In an AFP interview, Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni echoed this sentiment and said: "We must set quotas because it's impossible for an island such as Santorini... to have five cruise ships arriving at the same time."
Local officials have set a limit of 8,000 cruise boat passengers per day from next year.
But not all local operators agree.
Antonis Pagonis, head of Santorini's hoteliers association, believes better visitor flow management is part of the solution.
"It is not possible to have (on) a Monday, for example, 20 to 25,000 guests from the cruise ships, and the next day zero," he said.
Pagonis also argued that most of the congestion only affects parts of the island like the capital, Fira.
In the south of the island, the volcanic sand beaches are less crowded, even though it is high season in July.
'I'm in Türkiye
The modern tourism industry has also changed visitor behavior.
"I listened (to) people making a FaceTime call with the family, saying 'I'm in Türkiye," smiled tourist guide Kostas Sakavaras.
"They think that the church over there is a mosque because yesterday they were in Türkiye."
The veteran guide said the average tourist coming to the island has changed.
"Instagram has defined the way people choose the places to visit," he said, explaining everybody wants the perfect Instagram photo to confirm their expectations.