12 Epic Animal Adventures

12 Epic Animal Adventures book cover — 12 EPIC ANIMAL ADVENTURES 12-Story Library by Janet Slingerland

12 Epic Animal Adventures — page 1 — 1 Fairy Penguins Parade Each Evening in Australia It’s a little before sunset on Phillip Island Australia Hundreds of people gather on stands on the boardwalk They keep watch on the beach Darkness falls Everyone keeps their eyes on the sea Suddenly the crowd gasps Someone yells Look Over there One by one and then in swarms penguins pop out of the sea They hurry across the beach and make their way to their burrows Some penguins parade single file Others waddle together in packs The penguins on parade are little blue penguins Australians call them fairy penguins At only 13 to 15 inches 36 to 42 cm tall they are the smallest penguins Fairy penguins stay in groups of two to ten for safety 4

12 Epic Animal Adventures — page 2 — 32,000 Little blue penguins living on Phillip Island Little blue penguins go fishing an hour or two before sunrise each day They return to land shortly after sunset Hundreds of people watch the penguins return to shore each night PENGUIN JUMPERS Penguin jumpers are not jumping penguins They are penguin sweaters Oil the size of a thumbnail can kill a little penguin If oil gets on their feathers they can swallow it during preening Sweaters are placed on penguins caught in an oil spill This keeps the penguins from preening until they can be cleaned in the world The parade begins each evening when the penguins arrive home from a day of fishing They wait until just after sunset The penguins hope to escape the notice of hungry birds such as Pacific gulls and sea eagles Within an hour most of the 2,000 penguins living nearby have returned to their burrows They settle in for the night One or two hours before sunrise they wake They swim out to sea to fish again Sweaters keep the penguins from preening until oil can be cleaned from their feathers 5

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