Female penguins are picky about their stones; not any will do.
The gentoo couple, fine minutes before, are fighting. With her orange beak, the female pushes back the tiny brown rock her mate presented to her.
The male raises his eyes to her, imploringly. He coos. He moves in closer. But she won’t have any of it and turns her back to him.
Head slung in defeat, the male waddles off to find another stone.
“He has been stealing rocks all over the exhibit,” Olsen sighs. “I’m going to have to order another thousand pounds of rocks.”
Unlike their exhibit neighbors, king penguins have no need for pebbles. Like the majestic emperors featured in the film March of the Penguins, these birds stand upright while incubating a single egg.
The parents take turns, balancing the egg on large webbed feet while a featherless fold, a brood patch, cloaks the orb with body heat.
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