Head to penguin beach these days and you will see a flurry of feathers swirling around a host of scruffy looking penguins; that’s because half the penguins here are losing feathers very quickly! (Click here to read more.)

Don’t panic though, because all penguins have to go through this process once a year, and we like to call it moulting (Actually that is what the scientists named it).

Our feathers are very important to us as they keep us warm in the cold water when we are hunting fish, and they go through a lot of wear and tear over the year. This means there comes a time where we need to stop and spend some time just waiting for all our old feathers to be pushed out by the new ones growing underneath.

It takes around three weeks for us to moult completely, and we don’t eat during that time because having few feathers means we are not waterproof, so if we got into the water to hunt we’d catch cold very easily!

To make up for it we like to eat a lot of fish before we moult so that we can build up a nice supply of fat to live off, so if you are in Living Coasts any time soon don’t laugh at those of us who look a little scruffy or overweight, it is just a natural part of being a penguin!

Love Ping x