adelie penguin best pics

History
Adelie Penguin, Pygoscelis adeliae, is a species of penguin common along the entire Antarctic coast. They are among the most southerly distributed of all seabirds, along with the Emperor Penguin, South Polar Skua, Wilson's Storm Petrel, Snow Petrel, and Antarctic Petrel. They are extraordinarily like children, these little people of the Antarctic world, either like children or like old men, full of their own importance. Certain displays of their selfishness were commented upon by Levick during his surveying of penguins in the Antarctic, "At the place where they most often went in the water a long terrace of ice about six feet in height ran for some hundreds of yards along the edge of the water, and here, just as on the sea-ice, crowds would stand near the brink. When they had succeeded in pushing one of their number over, all would crane their necks over the edge, and when they saw the pioneer safe in the water, the rest followed. There is a spring, a squawk, a horrid red patch on the snow, and the incident is closed. Others on the mission to the South Pole were more receptive of this element of the Adelie's intrigue. Cherry-Garrard; “Meares and Dimitri exercised the dog-teams out upon the larger floes when we were held up for any length of time. One day a team was tethered by the side of the ship, and a penguin sighted them and hurried from afar off. The dogs became frantic with excitement as he neared them: he supposed it was a greeting, and the louder they barked and the more they strained at their ropes, the faster he bustled to meet them. He was extremely angry with a man who went and saved him from a very sudden end, clinging to his trousers with his beak, and furiously beating his shins with his flippers. This was an occurrence of some regularity, “It was not an uncommon sight to see a little Adélie penguin standing within a few inches of the nose of a dog which was almost frantic with desire and passion.

Due to their obstinate personality traits Cherry-Garrard held the birds in great regard, “Whatever [an Adelie] penguin does has individuality, and he lays bare his whole life for all to see.
Reproduction
Adelie penguins arrive at their breeding grounds in October or November, at the end of winter and the start of spring. Their nests consist of stones piled together. In December, the warmest month in Antarctica (about -2°C), the parents take turns incubating the egg; one goes to feed and the other stays to warm the egg. The parent who is incubating does not eat. In March, the adults and their young return to the sea. The Adélie penguin lives on sea ice but needs the ice-free land to breed.