My name is Ray, and I'm a northern rockhopper penguin.

I'm not like most penguins though. I don't like when it's too cold. To keep warmer, I live on islands in between Africa and Antarctica. Right now I'm at McDonald Island.

When I grow up, I will have long, yellow feathers on the top of my head. You might think they're eyebrows. My wings are modified and shaped different from most birds so that I'm able to swim quickly through the water. Our color designs vary, but we're all white and black with black specks on our white areas. We only get up to 55 centimeters tall, and rarely weigh more than 8 pounds. Despite this, we have lean, athletic, bodies.

My tail is shaped like a triangle so that I can swim after fish in the water. I also eat krill and shrimp. Mom and Dad penguins regurgitate food so that the chicks can digest it before they're fully grown. We are omnivores because we also eat plants sometimes.

Ray, eat your veggies!

When penguin Moms lay eggs, they lay two at a time, but usually only one grows up into a big penguin. The eggs are incubated by the parents for a little more than a month. When it hatches, the dad stays with it while the mom looks for food. The baby is ready to go to the ocean after ten weeks. This is where my adventure begins.

Common Name-rockhopper penguin

Kingdom-Animalia

Phylum-Chordata

Class-Aves

Order-Sphenisciformes

Family-Spheniscidae

Genus-Eudyptes

Species-moseleyi

On an unusually warm Summer day, I decided to take a swim to cool off. I was enjoying playing in the waves, so I ended up going farther out than I ever have before

As I went farther and farther out, the shape of a boat began to appear in the distance. Being the curious penguin child I am, I couldn't resist the temptation to go near it and check it out.

I thought everything was going to be okay, but it seems that I was mistaken. The men on board pulled me onto the boat, and started talking about how they were going to use me for food and oil. My bird brain doesn't always understand stuff but I think that this means that I need to figure out how to get away.