Demény István: Dél-Amerika és az Antarktisz-félsziget (2008) / 1060-2008

In captivity the king and emperor penguins normally do not learn to pick up their own food, and after they have been taught to feed by strenuous forced feeding they must be fed by hand each day. Penguins are gregarious birds and are found in flocks even at sea. On land the colonies often number in the hundreds of thousands. Although the birds have suffered greatly at the hands of humans, who have slaughtered great numbers for their blubber and, more recently, for their skins, the inaccessibility of the Antarctic region has helped preserve the group. Natural enemies of the penguin include leopard seals, killer whales, and, in the case of young chicks and eggs, skuas. Penguin Rookery The largest penguin rookeries, where hundreds of thousands to millions of penguins may gather, are located along the coast of Antarctica and on several Antarctic islands. Penguins always return to the rookery where they were born. Seals Seals were the first Antarctic species to be commercially harvested. The trade in seal skins as early as the 1820s brought several species close to extinction. Today, seals in the Antarctic are protected by the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals. There are two main division of seals (Pinniped) the "eared" seals (Otariidae) and the "true" seals (Phocidae), which have no protruding ear. Members of both types are found in the far south. The "eared" seals have hairless hind flippers that can be brought under their body on land. They propel themselves in water with their long front flippers and on land they use these appendages to bound along, making them very agile. "True" seals have furred hind flippers that they use to swim, but on land they are dragged behind the body. They are clumsy and awkward out of the water. Leopard Seal Weddell 5eal | Crabeater 5eal