The National Antarctic Science Center has shown a video of Antarctic penguins and their babies. They are also called chinstraps (from the English chin strap) or bearded ones because of the thin black stripe that crosses the white chin. They are considered the most massive species in the Antarctic — there are about 7.5 million pairs.
The video with the chicks was made by a biologist of the 28th UAE Vadym Tkachenko while working on But Island in the "Vernadskyi" district. This year, 15 Chinstrapenia kittens were born there.
The mating season of these birds usually begins in October-November. They lay two eggs, but sometimes one or three. Baby penguins emerge from them in a little more than a month. At first, they are covered with light gray down, which darkens over time on the head, wings and back.
Both partners take turns in hatching the eggs and taking care of the children.
"Antarctic penguins mostly visit our Galindez Island, and even then infrequently. But on Buta, which is 20 km to the north, their small colony nests. And what is remarkable, it is here that all three species of penguins of the Pygoscelis genus found in our area nest at the same time: subantarctic, antarctic and Adélie. Sometimes Ukrainian biologists encountered such a neighborhood of three species on other islands as well, but rather as an exception. And for everyone to nest together every year and successfully hatch chicks is only on Buta," the researchers note.
- "Akademik Vernadskyi" is the only Ukrainian Antarctic station located on Galindez Island. It works constantly and is a meteorological and geographical observatory.