Saturday, February 11, 2006
So we watched March of the Peguins last night and after being completely traumatized by the little birds' lives, I've decided that the penguin life is not for me. First of all, there is way too much waddling back and forth between places for me and way too much starving involved. You know how I said in this post that the male penguins go for a whole month without food while they sit on their egg? Well, that wasn't exactly right. They go for over four monthts without food and while they are starving they are also freezing to death (literally) in negative eighty degree weather. Which is another reason I'm not into the penguin thing--it's way too cold. Female penguins loose about 1/3 of their body weight between making and laying their eggs and while that isn't necessarily all bad, (I wouldn't mind losing weight instead of gaining when I'm pregnant) almost immediately after laying their egg they have to waddle 70 miles back to sea and it is only then that they get to eat. Nobody brings them stale French Toast and sausage after they give birth, nor do they get a nice warm shower or a sweet-smelling bundle handed to them. And that's another thing--their little bundle (their egg) has to be transferred to the father before they can walk the 70 miles to their food and they have to transfer the egg just right or they will end up watching in horror as their one egg freezes before their eyes. And if that happens, the poor things have to waddle back to sea in freezing cold weather alone, the whole "march" to find a mate, for naught. Now if all of that isn't mortifying enough, there's more. If they get the egg transferred successfully and get to the sea before freezing or starving to death, they can finally eat but not without the threat of being eaten alive by a starving sea lion. And if they do get swallowed whole, the poor father who is sitting on his egg, starving himself to death (he'll lose a total of half his body weight), is going to be in a real pickle when the baby hatches and no mother comes to relieve him of his duties and bring food for the baby. And if the mother does return from her four month feast, there is no guarantee she'll have a husband or a baby waiting for her upon her return. And perhaps the worst part is, after all of this suffering for nine months, the penguins return to sea, leaving their babies and their mates behind, like none of it ever happened. They just swim off and three months later come back for more. So while the idea of Mark taking care of the kids while I take off for a four month feast sounds nice, I think I'd rather do the taking care of the kids together and leave the starving and freezing and leaving part to the penguins.
posted by Shana # 11:43 AM 
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