king penguin chicks at Gold Harbour, South Georgia Island
In the lingo of long-ago sailors, these king penguin chicks were known as 'oakum boys'. The nickname sprang from the chicks' colouring, which sailors thought resembled the oakum fibres used to seal up leaks in wooden ships. These 'boys' are big – king penguins are the second-largest penguin species, and when the chicks grow to the size we see in our image, they're almost as big as the adults, who can top out at nearly a metre tall.
At this point in their development, the chicks frequently hang out together in a large group called a crèche. These gatherings are always chaperoned by a few adults keeping watch over the 'oakum boys' from the sidelines. It's a kind of communal caring set-up that allows most of the other parents to leave their chicks for food-gathering expeditions
