Cool Facts About Penguin

It’s hard not to fall in love with the cuddly looking penguins that cutely resembles a bird in tuxedo. Although the very thought of penguins conjure up an image of a parcel of penguins waddling around on an icy landscape, not all penguins spend their life combating the dipping Celsius. In fact, you will be surprised to know that apart from Antarctica, this flightless seabird can also be found in the coastlines of the Southern Hemisphere, with one species inhabiting the Galapagos Islands, which is near the equator. Penguins inspire a lot of curiosity and they are a fun to watch as they move around in their upright body posture. On land, the birds move around in what can be considered as an awkward, laborious waddle, but after they dive into the water, their gait transforms into that of a graceful ballerina. In water, the penguins are in their elements, twisting and turning with ease and swimming as smoothly as their brethren fly in the sky. There are many interesting facts about the penguin and you can find some of them in the article given below.

Fast Facts

Type: Aquatic flightless birds
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Infraclass: Neognathae
Order: Sphenisciformes
Family: Spheniscidae
Origin: Southern Hemisphere
Diet: Fish, squid, krill
Size: 35cm to 1.2 m
Weight: 1 kg (2.2 lb) to 35 kg (75lb)
Lifespan: 15 to 20 years
Habitat: Cold and temperate ocean
Number Of Eggs: 1 egg (large penguins); 2 eggs (the smaller ones)

Interesting And Fun Facts About Penguin

• Penguins are found not only in Antarctica, but also in other places like South Africa, South America, Australia and New Zealand. These birds are not found in the Northern Hemisphere.
• Penguins use their flipper-like wings to swim as they had lost their ability to fly millions of years ago. Underwater, they are extremely fast swimmers and deep divers. Interestingly, their swimming style resembles a bird in flight.
• Their plumage is smooth, which traps a layer of air providing the bird with buoyancy. The layer of air also acts as an insulator protecting the bird in the bitter cold water.
• On land, penguins walk upright and are the only birds that can do this. They use their tail and flippers to maintain balance. They also slide across the snow on their bellies in order to conserve energy and move quickly. This type of locomotion is called “tobogganing”.
• All penguins have black back and white fronts. This is a form of camouflage prevalent in the animal world called counter shading. Their dark back camouflages the birds from predators in the air and when in water predators looking up from below finds it difficult to distinguish between the white belly of the penguin and the reflective water surface.
• Penguins can dive at a speed of 6 to 12 kilometers per hour though some of them have also been recorded to dive at 27 kilometers per hour.
• They have an amazing ability to control their blood flow. In cold water, they can restrict their blood flow to their extremities, thus lessening the amount of blood that gets cold without freezing.
• During winter in Antarctica, the females go out to fish at sea while the males stay on land in the extreme weather. To stay warm, the males huddle together and rotate positions so that each one gets a turn in the warm center.
• They have supraorbital glands and so they can drink salt water as the glands filter the excess salt from the bloodstream, which is excreted in a concentrated fluid from the nasal passages.
• About 1 in every 50,000 penguins is born with brown plumage, which is known as ‘isabelline penguins’. Such penguins are most often rejected as mates and have shorter life as they are not well camouflaged against predators.
• They forage in the sea for foods. Their prey generally consists of fish, squids, krill, shrimps and other crustaceans. They can see very clearly underwater and hunt by sight even in cloudy and murky water. Their sense of hearing is average and the parents use it to locate their chicks in crowded colonies.
• There are about 18 species of penguins in the wild. The largest of the species is the Emperor Penguin, which can weigh up to 90 pounds and the smallest is the Fairy Penguin weighing only up to 2 pounds. The Yellow Eyed Penguin is considered the world’s rarest penguin with only about 4000 remaining in the wild. This bird is native to New Zealand.
• Penguins breed in large colonies, which may range from a 100 pairs to as many as a few hundred thousand. In the colonies, the birds have a high level of social interaction and over generations have developed a large repertoire of visual and vocal displays.
• The two largest species of penguins—the Emperor Penguin and the King Penguins do not make any nests. Instead, one of the parents keeps the large egg on its feet and keeps it warm with a flap of skin called a “brood pouch”.
• Penguins spend almost 70% of their life at sea.