Join us this week as we take a closer look at the Pyramids of Love at Moody Gardens! Learn about the intricate relationships and courtships that take place in the animal kingdom throughout the week on our blog and look for our trivia questions on Facebook & Twitter for chance to win Aquarium and Rainforest tickets. Make sure to stop by February 14-16 for Valentine’s Day themed animal enrichment and presentations at the Aquarium and Rainforest Pyramids.
Enjoy several keeper presentations inside the Aquarium Pyramid including South Pacific exhibit dives at 11:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. penguin feedings at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. and seal feedings at 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m., as part of the weekend extravaganza.
Let’s take a closer look at the relationships among the beloved penguins, seals & sea lions of the Aquarium Pyramid:
PENGUIN LOVE:
Fun Facts :
- All of Moody Gardens’ penguins have an annual breeding season.
- Most penguin species are monogamous (one male breeds with one female during a mating season), but may not mate for life.
- Both the male and female take turns incubating the egg(s), except for Emperor Penguins, in which only the male incubates it.
- Incubating time varies from one month to 62 days.
- All of our smaller species build nests out of rocks and usually lay 2 eggs.
- King penguins carry their 1 egg on their feet.
Look for these penguin courtship behaviors:
- Ecstatic Displays- vocalizations, head swinging, stretching head and neck upward with flippers held outstretched.
- Bowing- One or both of the penguins dips its head and points its bill at the nest or at the other bird’s feet.
SEALED WITH A KISS:
Harbor Seal Courtship:
- Harbor seals usually return to the same breeding grounds every year.
- Males and females exhibit pre-mating activity such as rolling, bubble-blowing, and mouthing each other’s necks.
- During the mating season, male harbor seals exhibit underwater vocal displays.
- After the pupping season, males initiate true mating behavior by chasing, neck- and flipper-biting, and embracing.
- Females respond by growling, head-thrusting, and flipper-waving.
Sea Lion Courtship:
- California sea lions tend to breed on the same section of beach year after year.
- Successful mating has been observed in males as young as two years.
- A male with an established territory breeds with an average of 16 females in one season.
Sharks’ teeth are adapted for what they eat. Sharks like the great white and tiger shark have triangular teeth with jagged edges. This keeps hold of larger fish and animals, tear chunks of meat or slice through a turtle’s shell. A sand tiger’s teeth, on the other hand, are long and narrow which make them look frightening, but in fact these types of sharks are not very aggressive. The shape of their teeth is ideal for grabbing a hold of prey. However, the whale shark has very small teeth and it’s not used for biting because they simply filter their food.
Coloration and patterns play an important role in identifying a shark. Their special marks allow them to camouflage perfectly into their environment. Mako sharks, for example, inhabit tropical and offshore water and are normally a bluish color. On the other hand, the nurse shark has a tan pigmentation ideal for hiding on the ocean’s floor. Tiger sharks can be identified by their stripes and leopard sharks for their spots.
In early 1999 I found myself in Taiji, Japan working on a marine mammal acquisition for the Beijing Aquarium. The conservation ethics surrounding “The Cove” are another story deserving its own chapter at another time. While we were working at a Dolphin encounter resort on the outskirts of Taiji, we were staying in a fishing community just to the north called Katsuura. Every day we drove past the waterfront in Katsuura through the bustle of activity around the fishing markets. On one of my few days off, I visited the market to see what was being caught and auctioned. The sheer number of top level predator fishes that were laid out in organized stacks in the football-field-sized warehouse space was amazing. Tuna, mackerel, billfish and ocean sunfish made up the bulk of the daily catch. There were also several piles of shark fins stacked 4’ high and spreading over perhaps a 12’ diameter area. I couldn’t locate any shark bodies in the entire market area, just three or four large heaps of fins.
