Dee Boersma, director of the Penguin Project, spoke at a TED event recently and I highly recommend watching it:

Dee has devoted more than 20 years to studying penguins and she has the data that shows that penguin colonies are declining, and quickly. Just as important, she has clear recommendations for how to solve this problem.

If you watch the entire video you’ll see footage of Turbo the Penguin. Turbo was the inspiration for a penguin in my short story (and soon-to-be novel) The Tourist Trail. You can download the short story on the right.

Turbo is an amazing bird. For some reason he has adopted the researchers. They have never fed him or given him any reason to hang out with them. He just does it. And he doesn’t bite when touched — which is highly unusual. He also has his own Facebook page — and a growing legion of fans around the world.

Exactly how penguins navigate is still largely a mystery. Every year, penguins travel thousands of miles and still somehow find their way home.

Here’s an inspiring story about a penguin rescued by the IFAW, relocated two thousand miles away for rehabilitation, and then, amazingly, seen again back near his home.

The first time we saw penguin IF-0141 was back in May 2006. Together with 194 fellow Magellanic penguins, he had come ashore in the southern tip of Argentina. Victims of an unknown oil spill, the penguins were extremely weak and hypothermic – just moments away from death.

Flash-forward to December 2009, just days from the turn of the decade we received news from Pablo Irazoqui, one of the Park Rangers working in Cabo Vírgenes. Pablo had spotted a band on one of the penguins. There he was, number IF-0141, more than 3 years and 2000 km (1242 miles) from where we last saw him swim off!

Once again, IF-0141’s story is positive-proof that wildlife can be successfully rehabilitated and released back to the wild. Seeing him healthy after all of these years is yet another cause for celebration as IFAW starts a new decade of rescuing animals in crisis around the world.

You can read the full story here.

I just came across an interesting article on how the researchers in Punta Tombo are using computers to aid in data entry and spatial tracking.

And at least one Magellanic penguin appears to approve of the new devices.

Researcher Eleanor Lee sheds light on just how much data they collect each year:

“Up until now, we have collected 6 months worth of data in field notebooks every season. Since the project’s inception, we’ve banded  55,000 penguins, measured 25,000 eggs, and measured 174,019 chicks.  We had 1,838 data books in our lab as of Spring, 2008.”

To learn more about the Penguin Project, make a donation, or even follow the penguins by satellite, visit Penguin Sentinels.

Penguins may look cute and cuddly but you wouldn’t want to get too close to one. They bite and they bite hard.

Which is probably why we’re so fascinated by those select penguin who choose not to bite humans.

There is a penguin, named Sandy, in a zoo in German that has developed quite an interesting relationship with a zoo keeper. As shown below, she has more or less adopted him.

And there is Oscar:

He lives at the Staffordshire Zoo and he has become a crowd favorite because he too has taken a liking to people.

You could argue that captive penguins are naturally acclimated to humans — and, frankly, have no choice but to suffer them.

Which is why this next penguin is so very interesting.

His name is Turbo. He is a member of a Magellanic penguin colony in Punta Tombo, Argentina.

He is not a caged penguin — so he is free to completely ignore humans altogether. And yet he has spent much of his life hanging out with them. Barging into their rooms. Tagging along on their hikes.

He inspired my short story.

He also now has own Facebook page. And more than 200 friends!

Which means that we can now follow him.

Headed back to the ocean.