How Snares Penguins Get Clean after Living in their Muddy Forest Home
Sunday, 25 January 2026
The wonderfully eccentric Snares penguin is always up for a spot of self-care. In their New Zealand forest habitat they thrive, but there is something that happens in a forest that wouldn’t if they were, say, to live in ice-bound conditions further south. Mud. Forests are muddy.
The clingy mud (which they themselves have helped to
generate as they waddle through the forest) could be a threat to them. If the feathers are clogged, regulation of
body temperature is very difficult and so this might kill the penguin if they
don’t get their feathers clean soon. So,
they go to the baths and give themselves a proper scrub, after which they lay on a
special wax to their feathers!
Watch the delightful video below.
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