Rainingpenguins.com - Penguins & The Planet

Are penguins birds?
Birds are winged, bipedal, warm blooded, vertebrate animals that lay eggs. So yes, penguins are birds. Penguins are a group of aquatic, flightless birds that live in the wild in the southern hemisphere. Their wings have been adapted to their environment and are used as flippers for swimming.

Do they fly?
No, penguins use their wings as flippers to swim through water instead of flying. Their flippers are shorter and stouter than normal bird wings and powerful enough to enable many penguins to swim up to 25 miles per hour under water, a medium that is much denser than air.

Are they good swimmers?
Penguins are superbly adapted to life in the water and are excellent swimmers. They propel themselves with their strong flipper-like wings and use their webbed feet as rudders. With their long fusiform body (tapered at both ends) and feet set well back towards their tail, they have a streamlined torpedo-like shape that reduces drag and resistance in the water. Penguins adapt their shape in the water by tucking in their head close to their shoulders to keep their body compact.

Another physical adaption is their heavy solid bone structure. Most birds have hollow bones for lightness, allowing flight. The penguin's solid bones add mass that better enable them to dive, sink and swim more effectively. Their flat and narrow wings are covered with short still feathers that make excellent underwater propulsion devices. Think of it this way, penguins simply fly underwater.

How do they see underwater?
A penguin's vision is specially adapted for underwater swimming rather than life above the water. Penguin's can differentiate between the colors of the ocean waters, shades of green, blue and purple and they have a secondary see-through eyelid that protects their eyes underwater. Penguins use their specialized vision and hearing to hunt for food and evade underwater predators.

Can they breathe underwater?
No they don't breathe underwater. Penguins have lungs like humans so they need to take a deep breath and hold their breath while underwater and come up for air. When swimming near the surface penguins will use a technique called porpoising to leap out of the water in order to take a breath of air. They can maintain a speed of up to 6 miles per hour while porpoising.

Penguins have several special physiological characteristics that allow them to stay underwater for extended periods of time. A penguin's hemoglobin, the iron-containing oxygen-transport metalloprotein in the red blood cells of vertebrates, is adapted to utilize every last bit of oxygen while diving. They can also store additional oxygen in their muscle tissue and have the ability to use their muscles underwater for extended periods of time without experiencing lactic acid buildup. And to conserve on oxygen consumption a penguin can lower its heart rate to 5 beats per minute.

How deep can they dive?
The depth that a penguin dives depends on the depth of their prey which varies by location, season and time of day. Most penguins do not dive to great depths or long durations because their prey is found closer to the surface. The average length of penguin dives is about 6 minutes. Emperor penguins dive deeper than all other bird species, diving to 550 meters (1,800 feet) for durations as long as 20 minutes, although most dives are in the 3 minute period.

Emperor penguins have a physiology that allows them an increased ability to store oxygen in the body, and an ability to tolerate low levels of oxygen in the body and increase pressure from ocean depths.
King penguins which are the next largest penguins to the emperor are the second deepest and longest divers. Adélie penguins rank third in diving depth and duration. Little Blue penguins (the smallest penguin species) can dive to a maximum of 60 meters and duration of 2 minutes.

How do they jump out of the water?
Penguins appear to jump out of the water as they leap onto the polar ice. This behavior is attributable to their strong swimming ability. They can propel themselves up to 7 feet out of the water.

Do they have ears?
Yes they have ears. They're not visible because they don't have external an external fleshly part of the ear like humans do. They do have ear canals on the sides of their heads which allow them to hear both above and underwater. We can't see them because they are covered by feathers.

Penguins have an average sense of hearing and use that hearing to identify the unique voice and song from each other when mother's and chicks try to locate each other in a crowded colony.

Why are they black and white?
Their coloration is an adaptive strategy for protection from predators. It's the same camouflage technique used by killer whales and smaller species such as freshwater trout. Predators looking down see a dark shape on a dark background which makes it hard to distinguish the penguin. Likewise predators looking up see a light shape on a light background. It's a very effective coloration for a marine animal that spends a lot of time at or near the surface of the water. It's also effective as an aid to keeping the penguin less visible to the sea creatures that it hunts. Actually, not all penguins are black and white. While most species are black and white the Little Blue penguin is actually blue and white.

Do they have feathers or is it fur?
There is no such thing as a furry penguin. Penguins have feathers like all other birds. Their feathers are uniquely adapted to their life in the water, being very short, broad, overlapping, densely packed, and resembling stiff scales. They have more feathers than most birds with about 100 feathers per square inch.

They have three rows of feathers which are closely packed together and are distributed over their entire bodies. The outer part of the feather is waterproof while the inner down section traps an insulating layer of air, keeping the penguin warm in the sometimes freezing water.

How do they stay warm?
Penguins have a thick layer of fat beneath their skin and a thick layer of insulating feathers that covers most of their bodies. Penguins use natural oils, secreted from a gland near the tail, to keep their feathers waterproof. This helps trap a layer of air near the skin which provides insulation to keep the penguin warm in the water. Keeping warm is not a problem for most penguin species. Since penguins are well insulated to protect them from frigid waters most have trouble staying cool when out of the water. Penguins often hold their flippers out to radiate heat and make their feathers stand up to flush out some of the warm air trapped within. Some species have bare patches of skin on the face with which to radiate heat.

The Emperor penguin is the only penguin that has to cope with extreme cold, which occurs during the harsh Antarctic winter. They are the only species which breeds during the Antarctic winter. The male Emperor penguins huddle together to keep themselves and their incubating eggs warm (the females are at sea during this period). The Emperors continually change their positions to make sure everyone gets time inside the huddle and takes a turn at being on the cold perimeter. The Emperor has a thick layer of insulating feathers which are designed to keep them warm in water, given that heat loss in water is much greater than in air. In addition to this, the Emperor has the largest body mass of all penguins, which further reduces relative surface area and heat loss. They also are able to control blood flow to their extremities, reducing the amount of blood which gets cold, but still keeping the extremities from freezing.

How many species are there?
Depending on which taxonomic authority there are between 17 and 20 species. There are six subfamilies:

1. Great penguins: Emperor and King
2. Brush-tailed penguins: Adélie, Gentoo and Chinstrap
3. Little penguins: Little Blue and Northern Little penguin
4. Banded penguins: Magellanic, Humboldt, Galapagos and African
5. Megadyptes: Yellow Eyed
6. Crested penguins: Fiordland, Snares, Erect-crested, Southern Rockhopper, Northern Rockhopper, Royal and Macaroni

Penguins vary widely in appearance, size and habitat. The largest living penguins are the Emperor penguins which live primarily in Antarctica. Adults average about 4 feet tall and weigh 75 pounds or more. The smallest are the little blue penguin which nests on coastal areas of southern Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand and the islands Chatham and Stewart. Little blue penguins are just over a foot tall and weigh about 2-1/2 pounds, about the size of a small duck.

Where do they live?
While most people think of penguins living in Antarctica, only four species live in the Antarctic: the Emperor, Adélie, Gentoo, and the Chinstrap. Others species live in other parts of the Southern Hemisphere on disparate islands and the coastlines of New Zealand, Australia, Africa and South America.

Many live in warmer climate zones. Galapagos penguins live on Fernandina and Isabela, the larger islands of the Galapagos chain which are on the equator off the western coast of Ecuador. The Galapagos penguins are the only equatorial penguins. While the climate of the islands is warm and sunny, the water surrounding the islands is cold due to the ocean currents.

Are some extinct?
Yes. The Waitaha penguin is an extinct species of New Zealand which was just recently discovered in November of 2008. It is estimated that they perished soon after Polynesian settlers arrived in New Zealand, around 1300 to 1550 AD. The Chatham Islands penguin is another extinct species which perished sometime in the 19th century.

Prehistoic penguins: Pachydyptes ponderosus, the largest fossil penguin, know as the Giant New Zealand Penguin was probably at least 50 per cent taller than the Emperor penguin and probably weighed about 220 pounds. These penguins probably lived about 45-37 million years ago.

Other prehistoric species' bones were found in 2005 along the southern coast of Peru. The giant species, Icadyptes salasi lived about 36 million years ago, while the smaller species, Perudyptes devriesi, 2.5 to 3 ft tall, one of the oldest discovered penguin species, lived about 42 million years ago. The fossils indicated extremely long, narrow spear-like beaks that likely helped the penguin gulp down large prey and attain its large size. Today the only penguin from Peru is the Humboldt which is about 2 feet tall.

Are penguins threatened?
Some species are currently threatened and all species are impacted by the activities of man, from climate change, over-fishing, oil spills, deforestation, water pollution, encroachment and habitat destruction.

Recent scientific predictive models based on climate change trends and population dynamics of Emperor penguins suggest that the impact of climate change on sea ice coverage could result in the reduction of Emperor penguins by 95% by year 2100. The models rate probability of this change at 8 out of 10.

How do they reproduce?
Penguins reproduce the same way that all other birds reproduce. The male mounts the female and sperm is passed from cloaca to cloaca. The egg is fertilized at ovulation, but yolk development starts 14-17 days before this. After that the albumen and shell are added and the egg moves down the oviduct. In all it takes around 23 days. The second egg is laid after 3-4 days.

Do baby penguins look like the adults?
Baby penguins don't look much like their parents. Most penguin chicks are initially covered with fluffy brown downy feathers so they look like puffy balls. After a week or two the first downy feathers are replaced with a much thicker layer of secondary down. When the chick approaches full size the down is replaced by feathers.

How do they feed their young?
Penguins hunt for food at sea and store food in their stomachs as they travel from sea to the rookery where they regurgitate the food to their chicks. Penguins will walk in straight lines between their offshore feeding grounds and onshore nesting colonies. Adult penguins do not eat during their time on land.

How big do penguins get?
The largest living penguins are the Emperor penguins which live primarily in Antarctica. Adults average about 4 feet tall and weigh 75 pounds or more. The smallest are the little blue penguin which nests on coastal areas of southern Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand and the islands Chatham and Stewart. Little blue penguins are just over a foot tall and weigh about 2-1/2 pounds, about the size of a small duck.

How long do they live?
There have not been many long term studies in the wild to determine penguin lifespan. A study done in New Zealand in the 1940's and 50's indicated that the average lifespan of a Yellow-eyed penguin in the wild was 15 years. In the wild, Emperor penguins can live to be 20 years old, and some quite longer. In captivity penguins tend to live many years longer than they do in the wild since they eat balanced meals and do not have to contend with predators.

What do penguins eat?
Depending on where they live, penguins eat a variety of fish including anchovies, sardines, mullet, opal fish, lanternfish, blue cod, red cod, squid, cuttlefish, octopus, and krill (a small shrimp like creature with an entire biomass of 500 million tons, about twice that of all humans). Antarctic penguins eat a lot of krill. Krill is considered a keystone species, near the bottom of the food chain, because it feeds mostly on phytoplankton and zooplankton to convert those small drifting organisms into a major food source form many sea creatures.

Penguins eat while swimming. Some species of penguin hunt surface-schooling fish while others are mid-water or bottom feeders. Penguins have rear pointing, tooth-like barbs on the tongue and roof of the mouth which assist them in holding and swallowing their slippery prey. They do not eat on land and will subsist entirely on a layer of fat underneath their skin.

What do they drink?
Penguins will drink either fresh or salt water. If they are on land and there is fresh water available they'll drink from streams and pools. They will drink water preened off their backs during rain showers. Penguins are capable of drinking salt water and do so when at sea. They have a special physiology with glands around their eye sockets that extract the excess salt from their blood which is then excreted in a saline solution through their nasal passages. Penguins are also known to eat snow as a water source.

Do they always waddle?
No. Penguins walk at a pace of half a mile an hour to a little over a mile an hour. On snow they'll often flop down, face forward onto their belly and toboggan across the surface using their short strong wings and webbed feet to propel and guide them.

Do they lie down to sleep?
Penguins sleep in a wide range of positions. Emperor penguins will sleep standing up so that their body is less exposed to the cold snow. The Emperor stands on his well insulated feet and will rock back on his heels to reduce snow contact with his toes. King penguins and other large species often sleep on their bellies while smaller penguins are known to nap in burrows. Many penguins can often be seen sleeping with part of their bill tucked under a flipper to provide extra insulation. Penguins sleep for a few minutes at a time any time of the day or night in any place or position where they feel comfortable and safe. They do not fall into a deep sleep as humans do because they have to be alert for potential predators. They take several short naps throughout the day and night and can nap in the ocean as well as on land. Napping often occurs after eating.

How do they communicate?
Penguins communicate by vocalizing and using visual displays. Calls and displays are used for such purposes as declaring territory, showing aggression or submission, attracting and greeting mates. Penguins have individually identifiable contact calls which allow the female to find her chick(s) when returning from offshore feeding grounds to the rookery, making her way through the crowd where it would be impossible to identify her chick(s) by sight. Display calls are used by partners and convey information on territory, sexual and individual recognition. Threat calls are used to defend against predators.

Penguins can make a lot of noise when they are calling to each other in a colony. Some penguin calls sound like trumpets and others like cackling. The African penguin makes a braying, donkey-like, call and was previously know as the Jackass penguin.

Penguins wave their heads and their flippers, bow their heads, and when contesting nesting territory may stare down at each other. Occasionally they'll attack each other.

Do they mate for life?
Penguins are mostly monogamous however some species choose a new mate every year. Occasionally penguins may seek extra pair copulations.

Do they fight?
Penguins are known to fight each other especially during mating season. A fight may involve wing tapping, jabbing, biting or kicking. It depends on the species. Emperor and King penguins are not particularly aggressive while crested penguins, Rockhoppers, Macaronis and Fiordland penguins, can be quite aggressive. Of course penguins will fight predators if they get too close to their nests.

Will they bite?
Penguins will defend themselves and their nest sites with their beaks and wings. They can bite fiercely and use their strong flipper-like wings to beat their opponent. Most penguins do not like being handled by humans and will both bite and beat with their wings.

Who are their natural predators?
Their chief enemies are leopard seals, killer whales, and skua gulls (who will nest near penguin rookeries to steal eggs and young chicks). Great white sharks also attack and kill, but rarely eat penguins.

Do polar bears eat penguins?
They probably would if they could. However they'd have to travel a long way to do that. Fortunately penguins don't have to worry about polar bears since the bears are only found in the Northern Hemisphere and wild penguins only live in the Southern Hemisphere.

Can I buy a penguin?
Penguins are a protected species and you cannot buy them. The Antarctic Conservation Act says that within the Antarctic Specially Protected Area persons are prohibited from engaging in any taking or harmful interference in Antarctica; receiving, acquiring, transporting, offering for sale, selling, purchasing, importing, exporting, or having custody, control or possession of any native bird, mammal or plant.

You can however adopt a penguin at Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo. As of this writing in June 2009, they have a summer special where you can adopt a pair of Humboldt penguins for $69. There are of course higher dollar value adoption levels.

The $69 Penguin Pair Adoption Special at Woodland Park Zoo Includes:
. Adorable plush animal
. ZooParent adoption certificate
. Color photo
. Animal fact sheet
. ZooParent static window cling
. Woodland Park Zoo folder
http://www.zoo.org/support/Humboldt-Penguin-Summer-Special-P244C40.aspx