Ushuaia Peguin Colonies

Late Sunday afternoon we ventured 1.5 hours by bus down the coast of the Beagle channel to visit Magellanic & Gentoo (Papua) penguin colonies with Pira Tour; the only tour company which allows you to get off the boat and walk around the island with the penguins.  After taking the bus, we took a zodiac about 15 minutes out into the channel and landed on the beach of the island, admist hundreds (maybe thousands) of penguins. We quietly left the zodiac and sat on the beach for a while just admiring the penguins and taking pictures. We spent about an hour on the island walking around with a guide, watching penguins nest and socialize (squaking for their mates who were coming back from fishing). The penguins weren't afraid of us, but we moved slowly and kept our distance so as not to disturb them. It was hatching time on the island, so we got to see a few furry babies poking out from underneath their mothers.

We were impressed with how non-commercialized the tour was despite the fact that as many as 40 people visit the island each day between October and April, when the colony is active. There was very little human impact on the island and little wooden driftwood stakes marked where you could walk, so as not to disturb the nests.

The Gentoo penguins (the larger ones, around 24" tall) make nests in the open out of sticks and stones, while the Magellanic penguins (the smaller ones, around 18" tall) dig burrows in the soft ground, sometimes under the protection of low bushes. There were only about 24 couples of Gentoo penguins on the island, but hundreds (at least) of Magellanic penguin couples. The female penguins choose their burrows based on how well they are dug, and if they like the burrow, they will like the male penguin that dug it (if not, they move on). Penguins organize themselves into "neighbourhoods" on the island, and have a single path per neighbourhood which they go to and from the ocean everyday. If a penguin couple decided to move burrows, they remain in the same neighborhood. There is no heirarchy in the penguin neighbourhood, but different neighbourhoods respect each other's space.

We also saw Patagonian geese (with babies) and some other birds which feed on the eggs and young of the penguins. After arriving back on the mainland we had fresh mint-leaf tea (from the garden) in the quaint little farmhouse, then headed back to Ushuaia around sunset. We were extremely lucky with the weather; it was sunny at around 15 degrees, which was not only abnormally nice for weather in Ushuaia, but much nicer than the forecast had predicted. It made for an all-around wonderful afternoon.

Here are a couple (haha) of our favorite pictures!