The reason they build their nests out of rocks
is to lift the egg and the chick out of the muck that’s around,
particularly after snow begins to melt.
They do collect rocks and make sure their mate is
well taken care of before they go off to sea to feed.
So that’s how they maintain their nests –
these bouts of collecting rocks.
So that’s one of the signs of them going off.
There’s this one penguin right here that’s gathering a lot of rocks and
bringing them to its nest to where its mate is standing and
probably that penguin is going to be leaving pretty soon.
I can tell because its mate is very clean and it is very dirty.
Well that’s a nest of somebody that went to sea and
as soon as he left,
everybody else is coming and getting his rocks.
So that’s why you need to have a pair of penguins
if you want to have a good rock pile.
Because one penguin has to always be there to defend the pile.
Otherwise this is what happens –
everybody comes and raids all the rocks.
In another hour there won’t be any rocks left in that scoop.
The penguins space their nests like this
in order to prevent skuas from
walking between and stealing eggs or chicks.
So usually you notice that the penguins on nests –
very rarely do they face one another.
They’re always turned somewhat away from one another
because facing another penguin is sort of an aggressive thing to do.
These penguins are amongst the most expressive of all birds.
They can sleek their feathers and look really innocent;
or when they’re aroused or angry their crest comes up.
And those are all signals to one another
of what they’re thinking about.