Gentoo Penguins at Neko Harbour: Curious Birds Take Over a Glacier Photo

The Reddit user land_of_ice was setting up a shot of a glacier at Neko Harbour, on the Antarctic Peninsula, when a group of gentoo penguins waddled over to see what he was doing. Instead of running away, they walked right up to the camera, and the glacier photo turned into a series of penguin portraits that he shared on Reddit in 2014.

Neko Harbour on the Antarctic Peninsula

Neko Harbour is an inlet of Andvord Bay on the Danco Coast, the west coast of Graham Land. It was first charted by the Belgian expedition of Adrien de Gerlache and takes its name from the Neko, a Scottish whaling boat that worked these waters from 1911 to 1924.

Because the shore is part of the Antarctic mainland, a landing here counts as setting foot on the continent itself, which makes it a favourite stop for expedition ships. A short climb up the hill above the beach gives wide views over Andvord Bay, where thick ice drapes the cliffs and crevassed glacier tongues reach down to the water.

Those glaciers are very active. Calving ice can send large waves across the bay, which is why the penguins build their colony on the slope above the beach. The Argentine Navy opened the small Captain Fliess Refuge here in 1949; a storm destroyed it in 2009, and it was rebuilt in 2011.

Meet the gentoo penguin

Gentoos are easy to recognise. A broad white stripe runs across the top of the head like a bonnet, the bill is bright orange-red and the feet are a pale pinkish white. They have the longest tail of any penguin.

• Size: 70 to 90 centimetres tall and up to about 8.5 kilograms, the third-largest penguin after the emperor and the king.
• Speed: the fastest underwater swimmers of all penguins, reaching about 36 km/h.
• Diet: fish, krill and other crustaceans, and squid.
• Range: the biggest colonies are on the Falklands, South Georgia and the Kerguelen Islands, with smaller ones on the Antarctic Peninsula.

The species name papua is a historical mistake: the naturalist who described it believed it came from New Guinea, where no penguins live. Gentoos are listed as Least Concern, and on the Antarctic Peninsula their numbers are rising as they move into areas further south that have become free of ice.

The gentoo colony at Neko Harbour

Neko Harbour's colony has more than 250 breeding pairs and is recognised as an Important Bird Area. Southern giant petrels, south polar skuas and Weddell seals also use the bay, and humpback whales are among the whales seen in the bay.

Gentoos build circular nests of pebbles on ice-free ground, piling them up to about 20 centimetres high. The female lays two eggs, and both parents take turns incubating them for 34 to 36 days. Chicks leave the nest at about a month old and head to sea at around three months, so the colony is at its busiest in the southern summer.

Why the penguins came so close

Gentoos on shore are often curious about quiet, still visitors. That curiosity is what made land_of_ice's photographs possible: the birds walked in close enough to fill the frame, then turned and waddled away, giving him both a face-on portrait and a view from behind.

Visitors are asked to let wildlife set the distance. Keep clear of the sandy beach, which the penguins use as their route to and from the sea, and stand still if a bird approaches, as these gentoos did. Explore more animal encounters: a seal pup approaching a photographer and penguins and the effects of film editing.

Related reading

• Penguin Bloopers from Spy in the Huddle
• One Lively Penguin in a Quieter Group
• A Penguin Slip, a Perfectly Timed Sound and a Short Winter Clip

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