Eat your heart out, Deepest Bear 
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/penguin-sets-new-dive-record/2006/03/27/1143330969427.html
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/penguin-sets-new-dive-record/2006/03/27/1143330969427.html
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Penguin sets new depth record
- Thread starterBennyB
- Start date
Thread Status: Hello
, There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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Cool.
I remember hearing in a nature documentary that penguins take the amount of air they think they will need for a dive, based on past experience. That one must have packed.
I used to work at the zoo, looking after the penguins. Their pool was about 1m deep. They probably didn't even bother taking a breath before diving.
In the wild they would only ever eat underwater, but in captivity they learn to also eat on land. When they took a fish from my hand they would always exhale forcefully. Maybe they automatically held their breath because they associate eating with being underwater.
One of the keepers told me that once in the winter their pool froze over, and there was only one hole in the ice. A penguin dived in, swam around, and then forgot where the hole was. It was racing up and down the pool, desperately trying to find the way to the surface. The keeper was about to break the ice when the penguin found the hole and came up panting.
I was told that the African penguins that I looked after could hold their breath for 5 minutes. I never saw them doing more than about 30 seconds, but maybe they don't do long times unless they have to.
Once I saw a cormorant diving in a fishing pond, and timed its dives. It took exactly 30 seconds each time, and dived repeatedly with short surface intervals.
I did the same with a great crested grebe, and it never surfaced, at least it wasn't anywhere I could see. If it was ok, it must have gone very far!
This raises the question: do they ever blackout or samba? Of course they would never just sit around holding their breath until they pass out, but when they are chasing prey, can they forget their limits?
Lucia
I remember hearing in a nature documentary that penguins take the amount of air they think they will need for a dive, based on past experience. That one must have packed.
I used to work at the zoo, looking after the penguins. Their pool was about 1m deep. They probably didn't even bother taking a breath before diving.
In the wild they would only ever eat underwater, but in captivity they learn to also eat on land. When they took a fish from my hand they would always exhale forcefully. Maybe they automatically held their breath because they associate eating with being underwater.
One of the keepers told me that once in the winter their pool froze over, and there was only one hole in the ice. A penguin dived in, swam around, and then forgot where the hole was. It was racing up and down the pool, desperately trying to find the way to the surface. The keeper was about to break the ice when the penguin found the hole and came up panting.
I was told that the African penguins that I looked after could hold their breath for 5 minutes. I never saw them doing more than about 30 seconds, but maybe they don't do long times unless they have to.
Once I saw a cormorant diving in a fishing pond, and timed its dives. It took exactly 30 seconds each time, and dived repeatedly with short surface intervals.
I did the same with a great crested grebe, and it never surfaced, at least it wasn't anywhere I could see. If it was ok, it must have gone very far!
This raises the question: do they ever blackout or samba? Of course they would never just sit around holding their breath until they pass out, but when they are chasing prey, can they forget their limits?
Lucia