During my recent trip to Antarctica Gulls and Petrels were around our boat quite frequently, lured by the krill, small fish etc getting pushed up closer to the surface by the churning of the waters by the boat's passage.
This was the first time that I saw Petrels - Storm Petrels, Cape Petrels and Southern Giant Petrels.
But do you know why they are called Petrels??
William Dampier, an English explorer coined that word. Actually the original spelling was "Pitteral" - which changed over time to a simpler "Petrel".
The Petrels spend most of their life on water - coming to land briefly only for breeding. When the Petrel's take to the air while floating on the water - they appear to "Walk" on the surface of the water until they are fully air-borne. That walk reminded Dampier of St. Peter's walk on the surface of the Sea of Galilei, described in the Bible (in Matthew 14:29-31)!
So he decided to call these new birds which were unknown to the Europeans "Like Peter" (Pitteral)!
Here are some photos of one of the Petrels we saw - The Southern Giant Petrel.
The Southern Gian Petrels are big, adults have 7-8 feet of wingspan.
BUT you should never think of keeping one as a pet!!!
Because they brew a foul smelling liquid (that's why they are also called Stinkpot or Stinker) in their digestive system. They spray this out of their mouth on their enemies/predators to scare them away. They also have a gland that separates salt from their blood. This excess salt continuously oozes out of their nostril's giving them a permanent runny nose !!
Anyway, here are the photos!
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