We are sometimes asked about ourselves, and about our "qualifications" for writing these pages.  We are not biologists, but we are very keen amateur "penguinologists".  All the information on these pages comes from the best available sources (as quoted in the bibliography). Where we have any doubts as to the accuracy of any information, we have checked with professional penguin biologists.

Our interest in penguins is long standing.  Barbara has loved penguins for as long as she can remember, Peter became interested in penguins when it became apparent, more than 30 years ago, that if he was to have a long term relationship with Barbara he would need to get involved with penguins.

We have collected, and read, many text books and scientific articles on penguins, we have taken trips to observe penguins in their natural habitat -  we have now seen all the 17 species in the wild.  We have taken two trips to Antarctica - we have written a separate diary of the first trip which you can find elsewhere on the internet. 

In 1996, we attended the International Penguin Conference in Cape Town for our summer holiday.  At that scientific meeting, we met and befriended many of the world's leading penguin biologists.  Peter was also able to contribute, through his professional expertise in Materials Science, to the discussions on the methods used to tag penguins and, as a direct result, is now leading a project (with several penguin biologists) to design improved marking methods for future use. Peter gave a presentation on this work at the 4th International Penguin Conference in Chile in September 2000.

These new plastic bands are being field tested on African penguins on Robben Island in an Earthwatch project led by Peter and several South African biologists.  You can find some details of the project on the Earthwatch web site and on the web site of the Avian Demography Unit of the University of Cape Town.

Peter is a Physicist at Bristol University, where he leads the Polymer Physics research group.  As a scientist, Peter appreciates the need for accurate and clear information - we have tried to apply proper academic rigour to the information on this site.

Barbara is an IT officer with the local council.  She is also a keen amateur wood turner and, amongst other things, makes dummy eggs for zoos and aquaria to use to replace penguins eggs when they wish to incubate the eggs artificially.  Through this interest we have met many penguin keepers throughout the world and had the opportunity to learn about penguin husbandry from them.

We live in Bristol in the UK, Bristol is a medium sized city about 100 miles to the west of London.  Peter has to travel widely for his work (visiting collaborators, attending conferences, etc.) and we are lucky enough to be able to take holidays in places where we are able to see penguins at least once a year!

We try to keep these pages as up to date as we can, the last update was on November 1 2003.

All the photographs on this site are copyright Peter and Barbara Barham (unless stated otherwise) as is all the text.  We freely grant permission for the use of the material on the site for any bona fide educational purpose.  If you wish to use material for any commercial purpose please contact us.

We can be contacted at home by email to penguins@pobox.com. Peter can be contacted at work by email to peter.barham@bristol.ac.uk.