Johnnies 15 Minutes of Fame

Yesterday, my Johnnies once-again became famous. I only told a handful of people before I left that the BBC film crew for the series called, “Deadly,” hosted by Steve Backshall, was planned to come to Saunders (mainly because I didn’t want to jinx it). But they did come and boy, did the Johnnies love being the center of attention.

Quiet on the set!

BBC "Deadly" crew; (L-R) Kiri, Johnny, Steve Backshall, Me, Ruth, Scott, and Nick

During the summer most of the Johnnies stay at “The Neck” of Saunders Island (about 10 miles away but takes over about an hour to get there by landrover). Here they will find 5 species of penguins nesting (i.e., King, Gentoo, Magellanic/Jackass, Rockhopper, and Macaroni), nesting Black-browed Albatross, and nesting cormorants. As you can tell the buffet for the Johnnies is prettied varied and very well stocked. A lot of tourists (even cruise ships) will come from December to March to see the wildlife here, which makes it hard for us to actually stay in the 8-person “cabin” that is there. To make up for this, we make day-trips with Suzan, David, or Carole when we can. We went the first day we were here (Sunday) and it was so good to see the Johnny Rooks again (not to mention I added Magellanic, Rockhopper, and Black-browed Albatross to my life list)! So yesterday we went back to the Neck with the Deadly crew. It was so interesting to me to see the behind-the-scenes aspect of how the documentaries that I watch are made.

We did make the Johnnies work for their 15 minutes of fame though. They were tested on how intelligent they are, and how quickly they could problem solve, when we presented two different puzzles (or as Steve referred to them, “deadly experiments”) to them. The first was a clear pvc pipe that had 4 slats inserted into it. Each slat had a Teflon string tied to one end. A piece of meat was dropped on top of the highest slat and we sat back and watched. If all went according to our plan, the Johnnies should pull on the strings to remove the slats, allowing the piece of meat to fall from slat-to-slat and finally drop out the bottom of the pipe. It took a total of 5 tries for it to work. The first try took about 18 minutes and ended with an adult finally realizing (and becoming brave enough) to stick its head into the pipe and pull the piece of meat out (I think Keith forgot how long their necks are when he had the puzzle made). Try two ended much as the first try did, except in much quicker time by the same adult. On try three, we decided to outsmart them and we placed the meat on second slat to start and placed a rock next to the pipe so that they could reach the second slat’s string. That ended with the meat getting too close to the slat opening and they were able to pull the meat through the slot. Onto try four. It ended much the same way. Try five finally worked with a juvenile removing most of the slats including the last one, which caused him to miss out on the food. It reminded me of kids hitting a piñata, whoever actually breaks it open never gets first dibs on the candy. He was not a happy camper and a lot of screaming and chasing ensued. On try six, all but the last slat was removed fairly quickly. Then it seemed like they all just waited around wanting someone else to remove the last slat so they would have a chance at getting the meat. Finally, one did, and more chasing and screaming ensued.

The second puzzle is originally made for dogs by Toys-R-Us, but I had bigger plans for it. It is circular with four flaps on top. Inside there are 8 circles where you place the treats (in our case, pieces of mutton). As if that wasn’t enough fun, this toy also spins so there is access to all 8 spots with the treats. The only problem I foresaw was that it is not clear (in fact, it is purple and lime green). After the first try, we learned that we should leave one flap open so they could see that there was meat inside. Three juveniles showed immediate interest, one of which was very dominant and aggressive. Kind of like a high school jock -- ready to show everyone how it’s done, but really has no idea what he (in this case probably a she) was doing, and definitely not going to tell anyone else that. Another was most likely a male and he learned fairly quickly that in order to get the meat he needed to first, step onto the toy, second, reach for the flap directly ahead of him, and finally, reach over the flap from behind while still holding it up with one foot, to get to the meat. The high school jock did not like this “bird-brain” and made it known with a lot of tail/back grabbing and biting. The aggressor was able to replicate the actions once, but sadly he opened it on a circle where a treat had already been eaten.

Bird-brain

The film crew also recorded Keith and I trapping and banding so the Johnnies may have to share the spotlight, however, I think that stuff might be the first to cut. Once I am home I will post videos of the puzzles in action. 

Until next time, cheers!

After all that work, this juvi helped himself to a coffee break.

P.S. Fun fact: I learned that you can get sunburned in the Falklands. I now possess weird hat and sleeve tan lines.