Penguins are unique birds that cannot fly. They are clumsy on land, but excel in the water. There are about 16 species of them on Earth, according to other sources – up to 20. Each species lives in different parts of the world. Having adapted to the climate and living conditions on various continents, penguins have colonized the territories of Antarctica, the north of New Zealand, the southern coast of Australia, America (Argentina), Africa, and even settled on the equator (Galapagos Islands).
Places of residence different types penguins
Even before climate change on the planet, penguins lived in areas with a temperate climate. With climate change and the shift of Antarctica to the south pole, many species of animals left the ice-covered continent. Only a small number of adapted animals have mastered life in Antarctica. Penguins were one of them. Some penguin species have left Antarctica and settled in other parts of the Southern Hemisphere.
Currently, only 2 species of penguins live in Antarctica: Imperial And Adele. They can also be found in the coastal waters of Antarctica.
The closest relative of the Emperor penguin, King Penguin, inhabits the islands in Southern Hemisphere: Kerguelen, South Georgia, South Sandwich Islands, Tierra del Fuego, Macquarie, Heard, Crozet.
Another member of the penguin family, crested penguin, lives on the islands of the Subarctic, Tasmania and off the coast South America.
It lives on the islands of Solander, Stewart and the South Coast of New Zealand. thick-billed penguin or the so-called Victoria penguin.
A resident of the small archipelago of the Snar Islands is big penguin.
Golden-headed penguin inhabits the southern Atlantic (Tierra del Fuego islands, Falkland Islands), and is also common in the southern part of Chile.
Little Penguin lives on the coast of South Australia and New Zealand.
White-winged penguin lives on the coasts of southern Australia and the western part of the South Island of New Zealand, Canterbury.
The main place of residence for magnificent penguin became the Campbell Archipelago. Some individuals of this species can be found on Bounty Island and in the east of Macquarie Island.
See gentoo penguin possible on the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the Kerguelen Archipelago.
Spectacled penguin is an inhabitant of South Africa, Namibia, and is also found along islands with the cold Bengal Current.
The habitat of the Galapagos penguin is the Galapagos Islands. About 90% of the entire Galapagos penguin species inhabit the islands of Fernandina and Isabela.
Humboldt penguins live on the coast of Chile and Peru.
Magellanic penguin inhabits the coasts of the islands of Juan Fernandez and Tierra del Fuego. In addition to the southern coast of America, this species is also found north of Coquimbo (Chile) and Rio de Janeiro.
Look at this beautiful fluffy miracle!!!
Most of us recognize this adorable fluffy baby as an amazing and unusual bird- penguin.
What is unusual about this species?
Firstly, penguins are unique in that while they are called birds, they cannot fly, but they are very good swimmers.
Secondly, they are upright walking birds.
These inhabitants of planet Earth were first discovered by travelers led by Vasco da Gama. They noted that these birds they encountered resembled geese, making sounds similar to the cries of donkeys. A little later this similarity fat creatures with geese was confirmed by one of the participants in Magellan’s expedition.
The name penguins comes from the Latin root word “pygvis,” which translates to “fat.” It was the excessive plumpness of these flightless birds that gave rise to their “name” - penguins.
The scientific term defining this species of animal appeared thanks to the famous scientist Carl Linnaeus, who noted their resemblance to a small wedge placed in water. In this small but capacious definition, the naturalist was able to emphasize both the habitual way of existence of birds and their shape.
A thick torso, an awkward gait, a slow measured step - this is what the bird called “penguin” looks like to this day.
If the penguin needs to show speed and urgently get somewhere, his plump belly will come to his aid, which will be used as an excellent high-speed means of transportation.
The lack of confidence on land of flightless creatures is compensated by excellent swimming qualities. The ocean is familiar and familiar to penguins, water element birds can descend to a depth of one hundred and thirty meters, staying under water for a long 18 minutes. The speed of movement in water can reach 35–50 kilometers per hour! This is possible due to the structure of their wings in the image and likeness of fish fins. Adults can jump two meters above the water level!
Swimming, as an easy way of transportation for penguins, is not the only reason for their long stay outside land. In the water, these large birds escape from hypothermia. When the air temperature reaches 50–60 °C below zero, the water thermometer may show zero.
The distribution area of this animal species is quite wide - Australia, South America, Asia, the Galapagos Islands - although in the minds of most people on Earth, penguins live only in Antarctica. In total, there are 18 species of these charming animals on the globe, all of them are grouped into 6 genera.
The structure of the beak, mouth and the inside of the oral cavity allows these creatures to easily hold even the most slippery fish, which is the main dish in their diet. In addition to fish, penguins love to eat cuttlefish, crayfish, and some other aquatic inhabitants. Sea water- the only drinking component that penguins consume, the excess part of the salt leaves the body through special supraocular glands.
There may be more than ten thousand pairs of penguin colonies. In the family of these individuals, equality reigns in the matter of incubating eggs and feeding chicks; duties are performed by both parents in turn.
The courtship of males can be heard from afar, sounds similar to the voice of a trumpet are heard in the surrounding area during this period. The age at which penguins are ready to mate can vary from two to eight years.
Male penguins are very caring and attentive. Finding a place to hatch eggs, “serving” to bear future chicks in shells, obtaining food, feeding hatched babies - these are some of the responsibilities that males cope with well.
Brief information about penguins
Who doesn't love chubby, tuxedo-clad penguins waddling through rocks and ice and bellies flopping into the sea? Almost everyone can recognize a penguin, but how much do you really know about these seabirds? Get started with these 7 fun and interesting facts about penguins.
1. Penguins, like other birds, have feathers
Penguins may look very different from their other feathered relatives, but they are, indeed, birds. Since they spend most of their lives in water, their feathers point downwards and are waterproof. Penguins have a specialized coccygeal gland that enables the sustainable production of waterproofing oil. The penguin uses its beak to regularly deliver lubricant to its feathers. Oiled feathers help keep their bodies warm in cold waters and also reduce water resistance when swimming.
Like other birds, penguins molt, shedding their old feathers. But instead of shedding their feathers gradually over the course of a year, penguins moult all at once. This is known as catastrophic molting. Once a year, penguins actively feed on seafood to accumulate fat and prepare for the annual change of feathers. Then, over the course of a few weeks, they shed all their plumage and grow new ones. Because feathers are so important for survival in ice water, the penguins remain on land at this time.
2. Penguins, like other birds, have wings
Although penguins technically have wings like other birds, they are not like the wings of other birds. Penguin wings are not designed for flight. In fact, they cannot fly at all. Penguin wings are flattened and tapered, and look and function more like dolphin fins than bird wings.
Evolutionary biologists believe that penguins could fly in the past, but over millions of years their flying skills faded. Penguins became efficient divers and torpedo-like swimmers, with wings designed to propel their bodies through water instead of air. A study published in 2013 determined that this evolution is based on energy efficiency. Birds that swim and fly, like the thick-billed guillemot, expend enormous amounts of energy in the air. Because their wings are modified for swimming, they are less aerodynamic and require more energy to fly. Penguins made an evolutionary bet that it was better to be good swimmers than to try to fly and swim. Thus, their wings became more like fins over time.
3. Penguins are experienced and fast swimmers
After prehistoric penguins committed to living in the water rather than in the air, they proved themselves to be world champion swimmers. Most penguin species swim at speeds of 7-11 km per hour, but the gentoo penguin ( Pygoscelis papua) can reach an incredible 36 km per hour. Penguins are capable of diving tens of meters deep and remaining underwater for 20 minutes.
Birds have hollow bones, so they are lighter in the air, but penguins' bones are thicker and heavier. Just as divers use ballast to control their buoyancy, the penguin relies on stronger bones to resist floating. When they need to quickly escape from the water, penguins release air bubbles in their feathers, thereby reducing drag and increasing speed. Their bodies are streamlined and are great for moving quickly in the water.
4. Penguins eat various types of seafood, but cannot chew them.
Most penguins eat what they catch while swimming and diving. They will eat anything sea creature that they can catch and swallow: fish, crabs, shrimp, squid, octopus or krill. Like other birds, penguins do not have teeth and do not chew their food. Instead, they have fleshy, backward-pointing spines in their mouths that help push prey down their throats. An average-sized penguin eats about 1 kg of seafood per day during the summer months.
Krill are small marine species that are a particularly important part of the diet for young penguin chicks. One long-term study of penguin diets found that reproductive success was directly related to how much krill they ate. Penguins feed on krill in the sea and then return to their chicks on land to regurgitate food into their beaks.
5. Penguins are monogamous
Almost all penguin species practice monogamy, meaning the male and female remain faithful to each other during the breeding season. Some even remain partners for life. Penguins reach sexual maturity between three and eight years of age. Males usually find good places for nesting before looking for a female.
Both penguin parents care for and feed their chicks. Most species produce two eggs at a time, but emperor penguins ( Aptenodytes forsteri) - the largest of all penguins, only one bird is raised per breeding season. Male emperor penguin takes sole responsibility for preserving the egg, holding it between her legs and under folds of fat, while the female goes to the sea for food.
6. Penguins live only in the Southern Hemisphere
Penguin habitat on the world map
Don't go to Alaska if you're looking for penguins. There are 19 described species of penguins on the planet, and all but one live below the equator. Despite the common misconception that all penguins live among the icebergs of Antarctica, this is not true either. Penguins live on every continent in the Southern Hemisphere, including Africa, South America and Australia. Most inhabit islands where they are not threatened by large predators. The only species that lives north of the equator is the Galapagos penguin ( Spheniscus mendiculus), which, as you might guess from the name, lives in the Galapagos Islands.
7. Climate change poses a direct threat to the survival of penguins
Penguins around the world are under threat from climate change and some species could soon become extinct, scientists warn. Penguins rely on food sources that are sensitive to changes in ocean temperature and depend on polar ice. As the planet warms, melting season sea ice lasts longer, affecting krill populations and penguin habitat.
Five penguin species are already classified as critically endangered, and most of the remaining species are vulnerable or threatened, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list. African penguin ( Spheniscus demersus) is the most endangered species on this list.
The penguin is a rather unusual animal. This is a bird that cannot fly. There are several versions by which they got their name.
The first is the Welsh words pen and gwyn, which mean "white head". However, this expression was used in relation to the great auk, which is now an extinct species. It was probably transferred to them due to their external similarity.
The second possible origin of the name is the word pingwing “hairpin wing”. Another version is the Latin word pinguis, which means “thick.”
Features of the bird
These interesting animals can swim and dive perfectly, but are not able to fly. In many photos, penguins look clumsy and funny. This is due to the structure of their body and the structure of their limbs.
The bird has a special body shape that helps it swim well. In addition, they have a very developed keel. He has powerful muscles. This department accounts for up to 25% of their total weight.
Penguins are very plump, their body is compressed at the sides and completely covered with feathers. The head is supported on a short, mobile neck. The beak of birds is powerful and sharp.
Over the years of evolution, the wings changed their appearance and became similar to elastic fins. With their help, birds move well in the water. They have short, thick legs extended back. They have 4 fingers, connected by membranes.
Because of their structure, penguins have to maintain an upright position. A small tail, which is used as a support, helps the animal maintain balance. It consists of hard feathers. There are not very many of them - about 20 pieces.
All penguins have approximately the same color - a light belly and a black back.
Once a year they shed their feathers, with new ones replacing the old ones. different time, so they look unkempt and disheveled. During this period, animals remain on land, hide from the winds and do without food.
Depending on the species, penguins come in different sizes. For example, imperial ones reach up to 130 cm in length and weigh about 40 kg, while small ones are only 40 cm long and weigh about 1 kg.
Penguin lifestyle
Birds settle in large colonies of several tens of thousands of individuals. Underwater, they also act together and swim in schools. It is noteworthy that these animals are monogamous and, having created a pair, live together all their lives.
Penguins can swim long distances up to 25 km, diving to depths of up to 3 meters. They can swim at speeds of up to 10 km/h. Some species are capable of diving to depths of more than 100 meters.
If the search for food does not occur during the mating season or the period of caring for offspring, they are able to swim about 1000 km.
What do penguins eat?
The main diet is made up of small fish, plankton and small cephalopods.
At one time, the penguin is capable of making up to 800 dives into the water. This amount depends on the type of bird, climate and conditions.
Where do penguins live?
Penguins live in regions where it is cold and there is access to water. Their colonies are observed in the Southern Hemisphere, Antarctica and Subantarctic. In addition, they settle in the southern parts of Australia, Africa and on the shores of South America.
Penguins also have enemies - these are their immediate neighbors on land and in water. Seagulls often attack their eggs, and skuas attack helpless chicks.
In the sea, they can be hunted by fur seals, leopards, killer whales and even sharks.
Reproduction and lifespan
Puberty and readiness to breed offspring in these birds depends on the species and sex of the individuals. Males often mature later than females.
Additionally, some species can only start families at 5 years of age, while others can begin mating at 2 years of age.
During mating season males make loud noises to attract a female. Penguins make nests on low rocky shores. They make them from pebbles and vegetation. Often, cavities in rocks are chosen for nests.
Most often, 2 eggs appear in a clutch. Parents hatch them one by one. They change as needed when you need to go for food.
The chicks hatch within 1 to 3 months. They are born covered with thick down and blind. They mature only after 2 weeks. The weight of a small penguin can be up to 300 g.
More than 60% of the offspring die from cold, hunger or predators.
In various photos, penguins can be seen with their babies. They look after the babies until they grow up. Parents leave the chicks after 3 weeks of constant care.
“Abandoned” babies unite into small colonies and begin independent life. Later, large penguins join and help them. As a rule, these are immature individuals or those individuals that for some reason have lost their offspring.
IN wildlife penguins can live 20-25 years. IN ideal conditions created in nature reserves or nature reserves, there are cases when they live up to 30 years.
Penguin photo
Good afternoon, curious know-it-alls!
Today, to help parents and young students, we are preparing material for 1st grade on the world around us. Almost everyone who has been to the zoo has observed funny birds that cannot fly at all, but walk imposingly, waddle, or slide down ice slides straight into the water. Guess who I'm talking about? Yes, today we are talking about penguins.
Does everyone know where penguins live, or maybe there are those who doubt at which pole they can be found, whether they plow the waters of the Arctic Ocean day after day or gurgle near the coasts of Australia and Africa? Yes, in the Arctic or Antarctic, in the South or North? Let's find out!
Lesson plan:
Who are penguins and where can you find them?
So, we know that these are seabirds, they do not fly, but they swim well, and this is, perhaps, almost all that we know about these clumsy and amazing creatures with a white belly and a black back.
If you believe the great Internet, there are as many as 3 versions of the origin of the name of these inquisitive animals:
- according to the first of them, the penguin is a follower of the great auk, which became extinct in the 19th century, which in appearance was very similar to it, also could not fly, and also had a clubfoot on land, which was what sailors used to call a penguin;
- according to the second version, the name of the bird is associated with the translation from English as hairpin wing, which again belonged to the appearance of the previously mentioned white-winged auk;
- the third version translates penguin from Latin as “fat.”
Be that as it may, today we associate with this word only one bird, of which scientists count about 18 species. And before there were at least 40 of them! After all, penguin ancestors more than 60 million years ago (or maybe all 100 million, this is still unclear) lived in temperate climate at a time when their homeland Antarctica was not yet covered with a continuous layer of ice.
But centuries passed, the weather changed, and Antarctica shifted to the side South Pole, turning into one big ice floe. Many animals left, some became extinct, and only a few were able to adapt to the eternal cold. Among them are penguins.
Today, the penguin family can be found throughout Antarctica, which covers the Antarctica we have already mentioned and the adjacent island territories of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans. But Antarctica should not be confused with the Arctic, which is adjacent to North Pole on the other, directly opposite side of our Earth.
Penguins do not live in the waters of the Arctic Ocean, but seals and walruses, baleen whales and others can be found there.
So, we’ve sorted out the poles: penguins live in the South, in Antarctica, where they are most large cluster. These diving athletes can also be seen in New Zealand, which is in the southwestern part Pacific Ocean, they have “apartments” in Australia and South Africa, in South America and Peru.
But this does not mean that penguins love to bask in the sun. They prefer cool weather, which is why in the tropics they are found only in places where there are cold currents. They chose the warmest place only near the equator, on the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean.
What are they?
All representatives of the penguin family swim and dive excellently, but differ slightly in appearance and place of residence. So,
- There are only 2 species left to live in Antarctica:
- imperial, the largest of all, reaching 1.22 m in height and 22-45 kg in weight, with bright orange cheeks. 
It is also called Forster's bird in honor of its discoverer, a naturalist from trip around the world the well-known Captain Cook.
- Adélie, the most common and famous, named by the French explorer in honor of his wife. 
There is no other penguin representative similar to Adélie in nature.
- Close relatives of the emperor penguin, just a little shorter and weight and slightly brighter in color, the royal ones settled on the southern islands - Kerguelen in Indian Ocean, South Georgia in the Atlantic, Tierra del Fuego, Macquarie in the Pacific.
- The place of residence of the Papuan, very similar to the royal one, was South Georgia and the Kerguelen Archipelago. This species is distinguished by a white stripe running along the crown from one eye to the other. Its name is a real zoological incident, because penguins do not live in the homeland of the Papuans in New Guinea!
- Crested, the most northern, with narrow yellow eyebrows, with tassels at the ends, fell in love with Tasmania and the shores of South America. There he jumps on the rocks, pushing off with both paws and falling into the water like a “soldier.” The severity of it appearance impart yellow feathers starting from the nostrils and puffing up like a fan behind the eyes.
- The thick-billed representative, also called the Victoria penguin, similar in appearance to the yellow-browed crested one, preferred the south of New Zealand and the islands of Solander and Stewart.
- Chile and Peru have Humboldt penguins, named after the German geographer who found them. This species is distinguished by its white horseshoe-shaped eye patches running across the entire back of the head to the chest.
- To see the spectacled representative similar to Humboldt, also nicknamed the donkey for his loud and unpleasant voice, you need to go to Namibia or South Africa.
- On the island of Juan Fernandez and near the Brazilian Rio de Janeiro you can meet a species of Magellan, also similar to its two relatives - Spectacled and Humboldt. He only has two dark stripes on his chest, not one.
- You can interact with the Galapagos species, which is second only to the Magellanic species in size, on the Galapagos islands of Fernandina and Isabela. He is alone there in the city; there are no other representatives on the islands.
- In Australia and the Snar Islands you can meet the great crested penguin. He is always surprised because his eyebrows always stick up.
- The golden-haired one, whose golden-yellow feathers extend from eye level all the way to the back, settled in the Falkland Islands and southern Chile.
- The little penguin, the shortest of all in height - about 40 cm, is called blue because of its bluish, monochromatic top. It can be seen off the coast of South Australia.
- The white-winged species is also among the short-growing and little remarkable, like the small one. It lives in Canterbury and western New Zealand.
- The magnificent, or also called yellow-eyed, penguin has “built a home” on the Campbell Archipelago and Macquarie and Bounty Islands. He has a yellow stripe stretching from one eye to the other.
All of the above species are about 65-75 cm tall, with the exception of the imperial and royal ones. The weight of the smallest bird, for example, the little blue, starts at 1 kg, medium view weighs 3.5-4 kg.
How do penguins live?
These animals, clumsy on land, are real tightrope walkers in the water. Their streamlined body shape is simply designed to move where they can reach an average speed of 10 km/h. However, if they hurry up, they can accelerate up to 20-25 km/h, breaking all records for time spent under water.
Thus, the imperial is able to stay for up to 18-20 minutes, diving to a depth of 530 meters!
All this is helped by the build of a “bodybuilder”: the penguin muscles are so highly developed that any bodybuilder will envy, because swimming in conditions of resistance from the water column requires very strong wings-flippers.
These animals also jump high. Like candles, they jump out of the water one after another onto the shore up to 1.8 meters high. And who said that on land they are slow. By waddling from side to side, birds thereby save energy, but when they need to run as fast as they can, they can cover 3-6 km in an hour! They also know how to easily slide down ice slides while moving, either on their back or lying on their belly. Try and catch up!
A thick layer of subcutaneous fat (2-3 cm) and as many as 3 layers of waterproof feathers, between which an air cushion retains heat, help penguins not to freeze. They shed their “business tuxedos” once a year in the summer, updating their slightly worn feather suit.
And also, in order not to freeze, they huddle together in small groups: it’s warmer together! So that no one is offended from the edges, those basking in the group constantly move from the center to the edge, from the edge to the very center. In total, a friendly penguin family can number from tens of thousands to millions of birds in one settlement!
Their daily menu consists mainly of fish and crustaceans, which they swallow directly under water without getting out onto land, for which they do about 200 dives per day.
Penguins live about 25 years if people don't bother them.
Today, three species are on the verge of extinction - the crested, the magnificent and the Galapagos.
Among the main reasons why these birds are hunted are their eggs and subcutaneous fat, from which oil is extracted. Some populations are declining due to lack of food due to sudden climate change.
I found a cool video about penguins. Look, smile)
These are such amazing penguins. What interesting things do you know about these birds? Share your knowledge in the comments)
Interesting lessons for you!