Dedication
For Elizabeth Morris
J.W. xx
Contents
Title Page
Dedication
Meet the Penguins!
Chapter One: Where is Everybody?
Chapter Two: Dangers of the Wild
Chapter Three: Penguin Cam-demonium
Chapter Four: The Greatest Show on Earth
Chapter Five: Bird Fight
Chapter Six: Chicks and Chinstraps
Chapter Seven: Rory Gets Goosed
Chapter Eight: The Show Must Go On
Chapter Nine: Costume Drama
Chapter Ten: No Business Like Show Business
Chapter Eleven: Hooray for Rory
Copyright
About the Publisher
Looks: Rockhoppers have spiky yellow and black feathers on their heads that look like long eyebrows.
How big? 45 to 58 cm – about half the size of adult Emperor Penguins.
Favourite food: Shrimps.
Penguin party trick: Rockhopper Penguins love to burst from the water and land on the rocks with a belly flop.
Flipper fact: They hop from rock to rock, keeping both feet together and can jump up to one and a half meters.
Looks: Fairy Penguins have blue feathers on their heads and backs but have white bellies.
How big? 30 to 33 cm – the world’s smallest penguin.
Favourite food: Sardines and anchovies.
Penguin party trick: In the wild, Fairy Penguins are nocturnal so they only go on land at night (well past the Rockhoppers’ bedtime).
Flipper fact: The world’s smallest penguin – they are also known as the Little Penguin, or the Little Blue Penguin.
Looks: Emperor Penguins have black backs, white tummies and bright splashes of yellow and orange on their front and their ears. The chicks are fluffy and grey and their faces are white, not black.
How big?! Up to one meter tall – the world’s tallest and heaviest penguin (over three times as tall as Little Blue!).
Favourite food: Squid.
Penguin party trick: When an egg is laid, the male stands with the egg on his feet to keep it warm until it hatches (this can take up to nine weeks).
Flipper fact: Emperor Penguins can stay under water for nearly twenty minutes!
Looks: Chinstrap Penguins get their name from the small black band that runs under their chin.
How big? Up to 68 cm (twice as tall as Fairy Penguins).
Favourite food: Little shrimps called krill.
Penguin party trick: Chinstraps are also known as Stonecracker Penguins because their call is so harsh it sounds like it could break stones.
Flipper fact: Chinstraps are the most common type of penguin – there are about thirteen million of them in the world.
… Ahem, he’s a GOOSE!
But times had changed and nobody felt this more than Rory the rockhopper penguin. Since the day he hatched in the penguin enclosure he’d been the star attraction. Even as a chick, there was nothing he liked more than showing off his moves to the visitors.
Not so long ago, when Rory hopped on to the diving board and did his famous back flip with a triple somersault into the pool, the crowd went wild. They would cheer so loudly, you could hear them by the lion enclosure on the other side of the zoo. Today, there was silence.
“Where is everybody, Little Blue?” sighed Rory. “It was never this quiet when we were growing up, was it?”
His friend, the fairy penguin, tweaked his beak.
“That’s because you were the one making all the noise, Rory… ‘Let’s have a cheeping competition, Blue. Let’s throw our feeding dishes off the top diving board, Blue. Let’s creep up on the bears and shout “BOO!” Blue!’”
Rory threw back his head and hooted.
“Fun, wasn’t it?”
“The best,” admitted Blue, grabbing hold of his tail. “Remember how I used to spin you round and round like this till you got dizzy and fell. The visitors loved that, didn’t they?”
Suddenly she let go and Rory tottered across the ice, fell on his back and kicked his chubby legs in the air like a clown. But there was nobody there to laugh. Blue held out a flipper and helped him up.
“Why is no one coming to see us?” he wailed. “Is there a new baby panda stealing the show or something?”
“Maybe it’s twin baby pandas,” said Blue.
“Or maybe people have just gone off me,” said Rory, hunching down next to her.
“Maybe my stunts suck and everyone’s gone to watch the oh-so-hilarious meerkats instead. What have meerkats got that I haven’t got?”
Blue rolled her eyes.
“Let me think… Fur? A waistline? A sense of humour? Rory, get over yourself. It’s early, loads of visitors will turn up at feeding time.”
The two brown bears who lived in the paddock overlooking the penguin pool had been listening in to their conversation and interrupted.
“I wouldn’t bet on it,” said Orson. “The world of entertainment has moved on. No one wants to watch a bunch of birds eating fish heads any more.”
“You’re not even in colour. You’re black and white,” added Ursie.