So who didn’t
know that there are no penguins in the northern hemisphere? In our Travel
section last month about Alaska, we showed a picture of penguins and we were
quickly told there are no penguins in Alaska. (You learn something new every
single day). Penguins are flightless
birds belonging to the family Spheniscidae. Worldwide, there are 17
species of penguin, all of which breed in the southern hemisphere. The name is
believed to have originated from the Welsh "pen gwyn" which means
white head. The name was originally applied to Great Auks, which are flightless
birds that lived in the northern hemisphere, before being hunted to extinction
in the 19th Century. Great Auks looked similar to penguins, and were also unable
to fly, which is why they were killed off so easily by sailors who used them
for food.
Emperor
penguins live off the coast of Antarctica.
Unlike all other penguins in the Antarctic, emperor penguins do not migrate to
warmer climates for the winter months. In fact, they are the only penguin that
is able to survive the harsh Antarctic winters and breed during some of the
worst weather conditions on earth.
King penguins
live on the more temperate islands north of Antarctica. Although their habitat is warmer than that of emperor
penguins, king penguins have four layers of feathers and huddle together for
warmth.
Rockhoppers
are found bounding — rather than waddling, as most other penguins do — among
the craggy, windswept shorelines of the islands north of Antarctica,
from Chile to New Zealand. These gregarious marine
birds are among the world's smallest penguins, standing about 20 inches (50
centimeters) tall.
Macaroni
penguins are seen on Travel Wild cruises on the sub–Antarctic Islands and,
occasionally, on the northwestern Antarctic Peninsula and its adjacent islands.
The largest breeding populations are found on the islands of South Georgia, Crozet, Kerguelen, Heard and McDonald.
The other
species of penguins are Adelie, African, Chinstrap, Erect-crested, Fiordland, Galapagos,
Gentoo, Humboldt, Little (Blue), Magellanic, Royal, Snares and Yellow-eyed
Penguins.
Penguins do not live only in extremely
cold conditions. Outside Antarctica, Penguins usually inhabit desertic regions
and rocky islands where there are not a large number of land predators, so
their inability to fly is not an issue. Their habitats range from the ice shelf
on Antarctica, like the emperor penguin, to some temperate islands near the
equator, like the Galapagos penguin. Also, there are penguins living in South
Africa and Australia.
They are very cool birds! Did you know that, most of
the time, pictures you see of penguins in books and online show them in their
colonies on land? However, they average approximately 75% of their life in the
water. Penguins are able to dive a long way
into the water for food. Depending on the species, that distance can be up to
1,700 feet. However, they do need to surface for air on a regular basis. The
period of time that they can remain under the water without doing so is
from one minute to twenty minutes, depending on the species.
There are so many interesting facts about penguins
it is mind-boggling; for instance, king penguins don't make a nest, not even
the perfunctory small pile of stones that other penguin species go for. Instead,
they lay only one egg at a time and carry it around on their feet, covered with
a flap of abdominal skin called the brood patch. It is looked after in this
manner for the whole of the average 55 day incubation period, being shuffled
from one parent to the other every 6-18 days. When relieved of the egg, that
parent then goes off to sea on an extended food foraging trip.
Upon hatching, the chicks continue to be protected
on the parent’s feet and the brood patch for another 30-40 days, after which time
they are large enough to be able to regulate their temperature for themselves.
It can still be a wait of many days, 3-14 between parents swapping duties, so
the chick has to wait some considerable time between feeds.
I could go on and on! They are so cute – there are tonnes
of websites about penguins; have a look for yourself! I found information at
penguins.cl, kidszone.ws, Wikipedia.org and penguins-world.com but there are
plenty more.
Enjoy your research!
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