The most elegant of the animal kingdom
It is a bird that cannot fly, it has fins instead of wings and it always seems to be dressed for a party. Do you think you know who he is? If you answered penguin, you are correct. There are 18 known species of penguins and they all live in the southern hemisphere. In addition to Antarctica, they can be found in South America, South Africa, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands.
Fun facts
- Penguin eyes see better underwater than on land. Their eyesight allows them to evade predators as they search for food.
- All penguin species are found in the southern hemisphere except for the Galapagos penguin, which inhabits the equator.
- Penguins are carnivores, feeding mainly on shrimp (prawns), krill, squid and fish.
- The natural predators of penguins are sharks, huge killer whales, seals, sharks and even snakes.
- Penguins are social animals, they live in large communities made up of one thousand to ten thousand pairs.
- The colors of their feathers provide excellent camouflage in the water: their dark backs are not visible from above because they resemble rocks at the bottom of the water, and their white bellies cannot be seen from the bottom of the water as they camouflage themselves. with the clouds in the sky.
- Unlike many birds, emperor and king penguins do not build nests for their eggs. The female lays an egg and the father takes care of it until the chick hatches. For 10 weeks, the father will cover the egg with a flap of skin called a nesting bag. During that time the father refrains from eating, losing up to half of his body mass before the chick hatches.
- Penguins communicate by making sounds or by using their heads and flippers just like you would by waving your hands or nodding your head.
- The yellow-eyed or yellow-eyed penguin lives near New Zealand and this is the rarest penguin species, you can only find 5000 of them in their natural habitat.
- The fairy penguin or blue penguin is the smallest species of penguin, weighing just 2 pounds. For its part, the emperor penguin is the largest penguin, weighing up to 90 pounds.
- Of the 18 species of penguins, 5 are in danger of extinction.
- Penguins live between 15 and 20 years, depending on the species.