My family’s newest addition – an adopted Penguin from www.seabirds.org!

The collective McClelland, Govednik and Couto families have a new addition… a 5-year old Magellanic Penguin from the large penguin city called Cabo Virgenes, close to the human city of Rio Gallegos, in southern Argentina.

Our penguin’s name is McGouto, and here is one of the photos of our actual Penguin, McGouto, where its burrow is marked with its name…

Dr. Mike Bingham ([email protected]), a Biologist, author and lover of penguins who’s been working for 10 years to save endangered penguins, supports this adoption program that almost entirely funds the conservation of penguins.  A documentary showing Dr. Mike’s important work can be viewed here…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOeqFlnn0JU[/youtube]

I have chosen to have my 9 grandkids *receive emails in McGouto’s own words (with some grown-up, human help from Dr. Mike), and the kids have already received this charming sample from McGouto:

Cabo Virgenes is where I was born, and now that I am old enough to have
babies of my own, I returned to my birth place where I met my new friend and
partner. Building a nest and raising chicks is too much work for just one
penguin, so it is necessary to have a partner.

We prefer to make our nests inside a deep burrow, which we dig with our
feet. Burrows give the best protection against predators and bad weather,
but here at Cabo Virgenes the soil is too sandy to make deep burrows. The
soil simply gives way and the burrow collapses if we dig too deep. If you
have ever tried building sand castles with dry sand you will know what I
mean. So instead we had to make our nest beside a thorn bush, which gives
some protection. The nest is nothing fancy, it is just a hollow in the
ground lined with leaves, grass and feathers, but it is nice and warm when
it is windy.

Magellanic penguins like us lay two eggs each year, but these eggs won’t
hatch unless we keep them nice and warm. So we have to lie over the eggs all
the time, day and night, every single day, so that the warmth from our
bodies keeps the eggs warm. We always take turns at keeping the eggs warm.

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My grandkids are so excited with the addition of their new family member, and have already learned more about Penguins than I could have imagined.  McGouto is a real-life talking pet companion, and this gives kids a first-hand and first-heart experience with animals in the wild who need to be protected.

Please visit www.seabirds.org if you’d like to learn about this adoption program and/or take a Penguin into your home and heart, too.  The cost is $55.00/year, with the opportunity to continue with the adoption of the same penguin or feel no obligation to renew.

I am thankful for Dr. Mike Bingham and this wonderful, up-close journey to Argentina with our newest family member, McGouto… and for Dr. Mike for caring so very much about the conservation of these beautiful and incredibly awesome penguins and taking the time to share them with us.

I’ll certainly keep you posted as I look forward to becoming a great-grandmother when McGouto’s chicks are hatched!

*You can choose emails to be written for adult readers, as well