Shrinanda KothariThe Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is an international wildlife organization, with programs in more than 60 countries around the world, working in partnership in local, and national governments, civil society and intergovernmental organization including the UN. They have taken conservation missions for many species, one of them are the penguins. There are more than 18 species of penguins, like Emperor Penguin, Macaroni Penguin, Little Penguin and many more but Gentoo is one of the rarest species in penguins. Gentoo penguins usually search food near the seabed.
The penguin Awareness Day is celebrated on 20th January to help raise awareness about the flightless birds whose numbers are dwindling day by day. On this day the WCS Argentina did something extraordinary. This program associates in all 23 countries and all five oceans with the focus to conserve the marine life of the world. They released an amazing underwater selfie video recently taken by male Gentoo Penguin fitted with a special camera. A clip shows the penguin frequently seen plunging and twiddling through a family of sardines with startling speed. The Gentoo is seen bolting through a shoal of fish. The footage revealed that they came across the shoal of baitfish along the way and it won’t miss the opportunity to feed on them. Other aquatic life has also been seen in the video. The Gentoo has been seen flipping and rotating in the video clip.
The clip was shot in the Beagle channel off Isla Martillo, in Tierra Del Fuego, Argentina where WCS has held up penguin conservation for more than 20 years. The camera was provided by the Tawaki project and was set down on Gentoo by a team of CADIC-CONICET. This video was a part of a study on feeding ecology executed together with WCS, Antarctic Research Trust and the Tawaki Project.
