How to ID a Penguin

The next day was cold and cloudy, with a chilling wind that called out the evocative name of Patagonia. After a light breakfast of coffee and scrambled eggs, I sat on the beach in Camarones and watched the sunrise. It was a dramatic sight as the clouds passed back and forth across the rays of the sun, which occasionally broke through and lit up the stormy sea.

At 9:00am we climbed into the van and set out for the penguin colony at Cabo Dos Bahias. We spent the day walking through the entire colony and checking the marked nests, all 252 of them. It was a little easier and faster this day, because we already had done the GPS recordings, so one less task to do. We recorded the number of eggs in each nest and whether the nesting penguin was male or female. If a penguin did not have a visible blue or orange mark, or the mark had faded, we took the time to carefully mark it and make it very visible.

We saw a lot of changing of the guard from the day before, thus recording a different gender for many of the nests. It's amazing to see the fat and healthy recently arrived penguins replacing the skinny ones that have gone back out to the ocean to forage.

We took a break for lunch, walking back up the hill to the van in the parking lots. We had some delicious traditional tartas, an Argentine version of quiche. There was one variety with ham and cheese, and a vegetarian version with cheese. As always, sitting out in the desert with a hearty meal was a great way to refuel for the rest of the day.

Tarta de Queso y Jamón, an Argentine version of a ham and cheese quiche

Later in the day we were joined in the field by Flavio Quintana, the Principal Researcher on the project, along with Marcela Uhart, a veterinarian from the University of California Davis. They came to the colony to teach the researchers how to insert PIT tags into some of the penguins. A PIT tag (Passive Integrated Transponder) is an electronic tag that produces a unique number on a reader, allowing researchers to identify and monitor specific animals.

The volunteers got to observe the process, helping out where we could. Each penguin was gently extracted from the nest, using a board to distract the bird and also prevent it from biting. Once the penguin was held in a secure position, the back of the neck was swabbed with disinfecting betadyne. A syringe was used to inject the PIT tag into the penguin's neck and the whole process was over in a few seconds.

After the PIT tag was inserted, it was then tested with an electronic reader to make sure it was registering properly. A number popped up on the screen, indicating the unique identifier for that animal. The poor penguins took it all in stride, reluctantly cooperating, even as a couple of rectal swabs were taken to test for various diseases.

We finished up in the late afternoon and hopped in the van for the 30-kilometer ride back to Camarones. We had a few hours free before dinner, but it was too cold and windy to go out. It was a good day to sit and read a book, take a shower, then hang out with the other volunteers in front of a roaring salamendra (wood stove). This is the Patagonian life.

We left for dinner at 8:30, taking two trips to get everybody into the pickup truck and arrive at Alma Patagonica. Flavio and Marcela joined us for dinner, so we took a big table in the restaurant. It was pizza night in Camarones, with a delicious thin crust pizza. We had one variety with peppers and onions and another kind with shrimp and anchovies.

During dinner, I had a great conversation with Flavio about the Valdés Peninsula, where I plan to go when the expedition is over. He gave me some good tips, with an especially strong recommendation to go to Punta Delgada, an old lighthouse with accommodations at one of the headlands of the peninsula.

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