The penguin is the only bird that can swim but cannot fly. In addition, it is the only bird that walks standing up. In this thread, I will tell you about these amazing creatures. Penguins are wingless waterfowl that live in their natural environment only in the lands of the southern hemisphere. Most penguins spend half their lives in the ocean and the other half on land. Basically, most penguin species live in Antarctica and in some of the other coldest areas of the hemisphere. Some rare species can survive in temperate and even tropical latitudes. In general, penguins are designed to live in the sea. Some species spend as much as 75% of their lives in the water, only getting out to land to lay their eggs and wait for their offspring. The heavy, hard bones act like a heavy diver's belt in the water, allowing the penguins to stay underwater. Their wings, shaped like flippers, help them "steer" underwater at speeds up to 15 miles per hour. A streamlined body, paddle-like legs, an insulating layer of fat and waterproof feathers all contribute to their efficient and comfortable stay under water. They also have a remarkable ability to dive deep (this will be discussed below). In addition, in order not to lose heat, penguins have hard, very compact feathers (up to 70 cm2) that provide waterproofing.
Penguins cover their feathers with fat from a gland near the tail to increase impermeability. The black and white coloring makes them almost invisible to predators both from above and below. Like most birds, penguins have little or no sense of smell (good for them in their crowded colonies). Like other birds, penguins have limited taste buds. It is believed that their eyesight is better when they are underwater. Scientists suspect that penguins may be nearsighted on land. Penguins are considered by scientists to be the most social birds. Colonies can contain thousands of individuals. (As many as 24 million penguins visit Antarctica!) Even at sea, they tend to swim and feed in groups. Most penguin species build nests, but nests may only consist of piles of rocks, scrapings, or voids in mud. Emperor penguins do not build nests; they store the egg between their legs under a free fold of skin called a brood pocket.
The entire body of the penguin is covered with small scaly feathers, most of which consist of rods alone, without fans. The head of some species is decorated with tufts of long, bristle-like feathers, while in others the tail feathers are also long. The head is small, the beak is as long as the head, straight, strong, hard, laterally compressed; the neck is of medium length, passes into an almost cone-shaped torso; legs are short, almost entirely enclosed in the skin of the body, as a result of which they allow only short steps; fingers are strongly developed, all four are directed forward, but only three of them are connected by a membrane. On the ground, the bird is held vertically, leaning on rear surface metatarsus, but when walking, the latter stands almost vertically. Penguins walk with great difficulty, waddling; wanting to avoid danger, lie on their belly and glide with the help of wings and legs so quickly that it is difficult to catch up with them, especially on a snow-covered surface. Penguins swim and dive excellently and with amazing ease overcome the stormy waves of the open ocean - their real sphere. Unlike other birds, penguins swim with the help of wings alone, putting them into action one by one; the legs serve solely as a rudder and are extended straight back. The food of penguins consists of fish, crustaceans and soft-bodied. Penguins devote a significant part of the year to breeding, and at this time, tens and hundreds of thousands gather on the most secluded islands of the Antarctic Ocean. At this time, even non-hatching birds live on land. They nest, as they live in general - in societies. They lay two white or greenish-white eggs, which are watched in turn by both parents, since penguins have a highly developed habit of stealing other people's eggs. This explains the frequent fact of finding chicks in the same nest. different types. The chicks hatch densely covered with down and grow up quickly, thanks to the extremely abundant food continuously supplied by their parents. By the end of hatching, the plumage of the latter is frayed to the last limits and they begin to molt, often retiring to secluded corners for this. The molt, judging by observations in captivity, goes very quickly, ending in two weeks. At the same time, penguins do not go into the water and, therefore, do not eat, which, obviously, is easily tolerated by them, thanks to a thick layer of subcutaneous fat.
Penguin meat is very tasteless. The northernmost boundary of the distribution of penguins passes in the Atlantic Ocean through the island of Tristan d "Acuña, in the Indian Ocean through the island of Amsterdam, and in the Pacific through the Galapagos Islands; they are also found near the coast of New Zealand, South Australia, the southern tip of Africa and along the Pacific coast South America. This family can be divided into three groups, well characterized not only by external, but also by anatomical features. The first embraces large forms, a long, thin, slightly curved beak, and contains the genera Aptenodytes and Pygoscelis. It includes the Patagonian penguin (A. patagonica) and the long-billed penguin (A. longirostris). The second group - the genus Eudyptes - has a shorter but taller beak and is easily recognized by the beautiful yellow superciliary tufts of feathers. It includes the golden-haired penguin (E. chrysocome). In the third group, the beak is very short, strongly compressed from the sides, the upper jaw is hooked, the lower one is cut straight; there is no hood. This includes the Cape penguin (Spheniscus demersus) from South Africa, Spheniscus minor from Australia and the northernmost of all species - Spheniscus mendiculus from the Galapagos Islands. Fossil remains of penguins are not numerous, but a large form of P. (Palaeeudyptes antarcticus) is known from the Upper Eocene layers of New Zealand, proving the antiquity of this group of birds.
Types of penguins:
The African penguin, Spheniscus demersus, is also called the Blackfoot penguin. This penguin was found off the coast of South Africa. African penguins can swim at a speed of approximately 4.3 to 15 miles per hour (7-24 km/h), and they make sounds similar to donkeys. African (donkey) penguins have declined so much that it is time to take urgent action. Last year in South Africa there were only 26 thousand pairs of penguins compared to 121 thousand in 1956, and at the beginning of the last century the population of these birds reached two million individuals. Scientists are calling for urgent action - the only way to stop further decline in the population. In addition, experts must establish what causes such a sharp decline in the number of penguins. According to Peter Barham, representing the University of Bristol (UK), the main factor here may be the reduction of food resources. In particular, it is highly likely that overfishing of sardine and anchovy or the movement of fish to other areas due to global warming has led to this. It is also possible that the penguins simply weakened under the influence of pollution. environment which affected their ability to obtain food. Other negative factors cited are penguin-hunting fur seals, oil spills, and a reduction in cool breeding grounds in colonies due to climate change.
Penguins of the Falklands
The Magellanic Penguin is a summer islander (estimated at 100,000 pairs) who arrives to breed in the islands in September. These penguins nest in burrows dug to a depth of 4 to 6 feet. The local nickname "donkey" is derived from its loud and harsh cry, often uttered at the entrance to the hole, and also used to receive news from birds swimming in the sea at some distance from the coast. This species feeds on small crustaceans, small fish and smaller varieties of squid than those caught by man for sale. However, their diet can still be a source of potential conflict with commercial fisheries and other maritime operations. Magellan penguins leave their nests in April, apparently going to winter in the waters of the Patagonian shelf or possibly migrating far north to Brazil. Here they face problems such as poaching and oil pollution. An estimated 20,000 adults and 22,000 teenagers die along the Argentine coast each year. Studies in the Falkland Islands have recently shown a 10% decline in Magellanic penguin populations each year, but since the species is well-hidden in their colonies, it is difficult to estimate their numbers. The Falkland Islands is one of the world's most important nesting sites for birds and given the problems faced by this species in Chile and Argentina, the survival of healthy populations of the Falkland Islands may be surprisingly important to the survival of the species in general.
The Galapagos penguin is unique among other penguins in that its habitat is not the Antarctic and subantarctic regions, not even temperate, but the Galapagos Islands located just a few tens of kilometers from the equator. The air temperature in the habitats ranges from + 18- + 28 ° С, water - + 22- + 24 ° С. About 90% of penguins live on the islands of Fernandina and Isabela. Adults reach a height of about 50 cm and a weight of about 2.5 kg. The main diet is small fish, crustaceans. The Galapagos penguins have a black head and back, there is a white stripe running from the throat up to the head and reaching the eyes, in front the penguins are white. The mandible and the tip of the mandible are black, the mandible and the skin around the eyes are pinkish-yellow. Birds usually incubate eggs for 38-40 days, male and female alternately. At the age of 60-65 days, the chicks go to sea with adults. Galapagos penguins nest near the water. The number of individuals is estimated at 1500-2000 adult birds. The Galapagos PENGUIN species is listed in the International Red Book.
The penguin is magnificent. The magnificent penguin is also called yellow-eyed. It belongs to the penguin family. Also known as Antipodes Penguin and Hoiho.
The emperor penguin is the largest penguin species. If he just stands on land hunched over, then his height will be equal to 90 centimeters. If he moves, then his height is as much as 110-120 centimeters. The weight of this penguin reaches 20-45 kilograms. Emperor penguins have the following differences in color: the dorsal side is dark or grayish-blue, on the head this color usually turns black. There are round yellowish-orange patches near the ears, which fade into the underside of the neck, and which gradually fade to white. When an emperor penguin is born. Its body is covered with white or grayish-white fluff. Emperor penguins nest along the coasts of Antarctica, as far south as 78 degrees south latitude. The nesting of emperor penguins, unlike the others, falls on a very severe time of the year - in the Antarctic winter, and already at the end of the Antarctic summer, the first emperor penguins are born. Usually at first they do not behave very actively, they stoop. They lead a passive lifestyle, but then the situation changes, and already in April penguin pairs begin to form.
golden haired penguin(lat.Eudyptes crysolophus) - a genus of crested penguins. Characteristic. Having, as is typical of all penguins, a dark dorsal side with an almost black head and a white belly, they are distinguished by the presence of tufts of golden yellow feathers above the eyes, forming a crest. The body length of golden-haired penguins is 65-76 cm. Golden-haired penguins are distributed throughout the southern part of the Atlantic and Indian oceans. Golden-haired penguins nest on South Georgia, South Shetland, South Orkney and some other subantarctic islands. Their colonies are very numerous - up to 600 thousand nesting individuals. In general, there are at least 2 million adult golden-haired penguins on the coasts and in the valleys of Macquarie Island alone. Golden-haired penguins nest on the ground, arranging very primitive nests. 2 eggs are laid, the second four days after the first. Both eggs are fertilized, but the first is always smaller than the second, and usually the bird does not incubate it. The duration of incubation is 35 days, with changes of parents characteristic of penguins. Adult birds raise chicks for about two to three weeks, after which "nurseries" are formed, followed by molting and leaving for the sea around the end of January. A specific feature of golden-haired penguin colonies is a strong smell, reminiscent of the smell of rotten fish, which can be felt several kilometers from the colony. The GOLDEN-HAIRED PENGUIN species is listed in the International Red Book.
Penguin Humboldt. This species of penguins is found only along the western coast of South America, in the zone of influence of the Peruvian Current (Fork Island). A separate colony of these penguins exists on the Punihuil Islands. In total, about 12,000 pairs of individuals of this species remain in the world. 8 of them nest in Chile, 4 in Peru. The Humboldt penguin is listed in the Red Book as one of the endangered species. Due to the fact that now there is overfishing, the number of this population is significantly reduced. Also, the fact that some of the birds simply get entangled in fishing nets and die there also contributes to a decrease in the population. The size of a Humboldt penguin is approximately 70 centimeters. Its weight is about 4 kilograms. The Humboldt Penguin is very similar to the Magellanic Penguin. The coloration of female Humboldt penguins is similar to that of males, but the females are slightly smaller than the males. Penguins of this species lay their eggs from March to December. Depending on where the colony is located, the peak can be either April-May or September-October. The situation is quite possible. When Humboldt penguins raise two broods at once a year, if environmental conditions favor it.
king penguin(lat. Aptenodytes patagonicus) - a flightless bird from the penguin family (Spheniscidae). The king penguin is similar to the emperor penguin, but is slightly smaller in size and brighter coloring. The body length of the king penguin is from 91 to 96 cm. Adult birds have a gray back, large bright orange spots on the sides of the black head and on the chest. The belly is white. Brown chicks. Spreading. The king penguin breeds on islands near Tierra del Fuego: South Georgia, South Sandwich Islands, Marion, Crozier, Kerguelen (island), Heard, Macquarie.
The penguin can be considered an animal of the highest degree unusual and mysterious, so it is not surprising that it attracts the attention of many people. So the penguin can be found in many literary works, including those of Gorky and Semenov-Spassky. Several animated films were also shot, for example, "The Adventures of Lolo the Penguin" and "Catch the Wave!", because the penguins used special attention by the children. Other interesting facts include the existence of the Pittsburgh Penguins hockey team, which plays in the strongest hockey league on the planet, as well as the fact that the penguin is one of the official symbols of the Linux company.
Interesting Facts about penguins:
All penguins live in the southern hemisphere, sometimes climbing far north (to the Galapagos Islands, almost at the very equator) or to densely populated cities (North Harbor area in Sydney, Australia). Cody's homeland is Shiverpool in Antarctica, but he is happy to live on the tropical island of Peng Gu.
Penguins can stand upright because their webbed feet are located at the very end of their torso. This also makes them such fast and strong swimmers, especially when combined with paddle-shaped wings. This is how Cody manages to catch up with Mikey the whale and get a ticket to the Big Z Tournament.
King penguins like Jick are very good divers. In search of fish and other food, they constantly dive to a depth of 100 meters, and sometimes even 200 meters. However, Jik is lazy and would rather wait until Lani brings him edible clams.
Cody belongs to a rocky penguin species with a fiery temperament and long yellow feathers near the eyes. They are full of energy and often jump over rocks - that's how they got their name!
Papuan penguins, to which Lani belongs, swim faster than all other penguins, sometimes reaching speeds of 36 km / h. Such speed helps Lani to be an excellent rescuer.
King penguin chicks, like Cathy and Chumaz, hatch naked from their eggs and grow feathers over the course of a few weeks. A chick cannot live without its parents until it grows waterproof feathers, which can happen up to 13 months after it is born.
Can swim, but cannot fly. The penguin is the only bird that can swim but cannot fly. In addition, it is the only bird that walks standing up.
In penguins, feathers grow evenly. Only in a few birds do feathers grow evenly throughout the body; usually flightless species such as penguins.
Which feet to walk on water? Birds walking in shallow water, such as herons and stilts, are characterized by long legs. Birds that walk on carpets of floating leaves and bogs are characterized by long fingers and claws so as not to fall through. Penguins have short and thick legs located far behind the center of gravity. For this reason, they can only walk with their bodies upright, in short steps. If it is necessary to move faster, they lie on their belly and glide like on a sleigh, pushing off the snow with flipper wings and legs.
The best diver What do penguins do at a depth of one and a half kilometers? Japanese biologists have installed cameras on the backs of animals that spend a long time in sea depths. As the authors of the project explain, the sun's rays penetrate only 150 meters deep into the ocean, so it is still unknown what they are doing at a depth of half a kilometer, for example, emperor penguins or seals, which can dive one and a half kilometers.
Can sail three weeks. The Patagonian penguin can swim for two to three weeks and cover a distance of up to 1500 km.
The fastest swimmer. The gentoo penguin (Pygoscelis papua) can swim at speeds up to 27 km/h.
They dive from the surface of the water. Penguins, loons Gavia immer, grebes, diving ducks Clangula hyemalis and many other birds dive from the surface of the water. Lacking the momentum of dive divers, they use the movements of their legs and/or wings to dive. In such species, the legs are usually located at the rear end of the body, like a propeller under the stern of a ship. When diving, they can reduce buoyancy by pressing the feathers tightly and squeezing the air sacs.
The most evil penguin. Stone penguins are very angry, noisy and aggressive.
Good day, curious know-it-alls!
Today, to help parents and young students, we are preparing material for grade 1 on the world around us. Almost everyone who has been to the zoo has seen funny birds that do not know how to fly at all, but walk imposingly, waddling, or slide down ice slides right 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, do they surf the waters of the Arctic Ocean day after day or gurgle around the coasts of Australia and Africa? Duck, in the Arctic or Antarctic, in the South or North? Let's figure it out!
Lesson plan:
Who are penguins and where can they be found?
So we know what it is sea birds, 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.
According to the great Internet, there are already 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 white-winged auk, which died out in the 19th century, which outwardly was very similar to it, also could not fly, also clubfooted on land, it was the sailors who used to call it the penguin;
- according to the second version, the name of the bird is associated with the translation from English as a 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 only one bird with this word, in which scientists have about 18 species. And before there were at least 40! After all, penguin ancestors more than 60 million years ago (or maybe all 100 million, it is still unclear) lived in a 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 towards the South Pole, turning into one big ice floe. Many animals left, some died out, and only a few were able to adapt to the eternal cold. Among them are penguins.
Today, you can meet the penguin family throughout Antarctica, which covers Antarctica, which we have already mentioned, and the adjacent island territories of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. But do not confuse the Antarctic with the Arctic, which is adjacent to the North Pole on the other, directly opposite, side of our Earth.
Penguins do not live in the waters of the Arctic Ocean, but there you can find seals and walruses, baleen whales and.
So, we figured out the poles: penguins live in the South, in Antarctica, where their largest concentration is. You can also see these diving athletes in New Zealand, on the southwestern side of the Pacific Ocean, they have “flats” in Australia and South Africa, South America and Peru.
But this does not mean at all that penguins love to bask in the sun. They prefer coolness, because in the tropics they are only in those 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 members of the penguin family swim and dive excellently, but slightly differ in appearance and place of residence. So,
- There are only 2 species left 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 the Forster bird in honor of its discoverer - the naturalist from the round-the-world trip of the well-known Captain Cook.
- Adele, the most common and famous, named by a French explorer in honor of his wife. 
There is no other such penguin representative in nature similar to Adele.
- Close relatives of the emperor penguin, only slightly smaller in height and weight and slightly brighter in color, the royal ones settled on the southern islands - Kerguelen in the Indian Ocean, South Georgia in the Atlantic, Tierra del Fuego, Macquarie in the Pacific Ocean.
- The place of residence of the Papuan, very similar to the royal, 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. He jumps on the rocks there, pushing off the rhinestone with both paws and falling into the water like a “soldier”. The severity of it outward appearance give yellow feathers starting from the nostrils and bulging like a fan behind the eyes.
- The thick-billed representative, also called the Victoria penguin, outwardly similar to the yellow-browed crested one, preferred the south of New Zealand and the islands of Solander and Stewart for himself.
- In Chile and Peru, there are Humboldt penguins, named after the German geographer who found them. This species is distinguished by its horseshoe-shaped white spots under the eyes, running across the back of the head to the chest.
- To see a spectacled representative similar to Humboldt, also called 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 Magellanic species, also similar to its two relatives - spectacled and Humboldt. He only has two dark stripes on his chest, not one.
- You will be able to communicate with the Galapagos species, inferior to the Magellanic one only in size, on the Galapagos islands of Fernandina and Isabela. He is there in the city alone, there are no other representatives on the islands.
- In Australia and the Snare Islands, you can meet the great crested penguin. He is always surprised, because his eyebrows always bristle up.
- Golden-haired, whose golden-yellow feathers descend from eye level all the way to the back, he 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 the bluish solid top. It can be seen off the coast of South Australia.
- The white-winged species is also among the undersized and unremarkable, like the small one. It lives in Canterbury and western New Zealand.
- The magnificent, or also called yellow-eyed, penguin "built a house" on the Campbell archipelago and the islands of Macquarie and the Bounty. From one eye to the other, he has a yellow stripe.
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, a small blue one, starts from 1 kg, middle view weighs 3.5-4 kg.
How do penguins live?
These clumsy on land animals in the water are real tightrope walkers. Their streamlined body shape is simply designed to move where they can pick up speed at an average of 10 km / h. However, if they are in a hurry, they can accelerate to all 20-25 km / h, breaking all records for the time spent under water.
So, the imperial is able to stay up to 18-20 minutes, diving to a depth of 530 meters!
All this is helped by the addition of a “bodybuilder”: the penguin muscles are so highly developed that any bodybuilder will envy, because swimming in conditions of water column resistance requires very strong wings-fins.
These animals also jump high. They, like candles, 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. Rolling from side to side, thereby the birds save energy, but when you need to run with all your paws, they can overcome 3-6 km in an hour! And they also know how to easily move down the ice slides on the go, even on the back, even lying on the abdomen. Try it, catch up!
A thick layer of subcutaneous fat (2-3 cm), as many as 3 layers of waterproof feathers, between which the air cushion retains heat, helps the penguins not to freeze. They throw off their "business tuxedos" once a year in the summer, updating a slightly worn feather suit.
And also, in order not to freeze, they cluster together, gathering 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 mainly consists of fish and crustaceans, which they swallow right under water without getting out on land, for which they make about 200 dives a day.
Penguins live for about 25 years if people do not interfere with them.
Today, three species are on the verge of extinction - crested, magnificent and 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 drastic climate change.
Found a cool video about penguins. look, smile)
Here they are, amazing penguins. What do you know about these birds? Share your knowledge in the comments)
Interesting lessons for you!
Penguins belong to the Penguin-like order, a family of flightless seabirds. The homeland of penguins is the southern hemisphere of the globe. The geography of distribution is extensive: they settled in New Zealand, the Arctic, and Australia.
On earth, there are several types of penguins and they all have the same body structure. They differ in some external features, size, habitat, behavior.
body structure
Nature made sure that the penguins skillfully moved through the water, so their body shape is streamlined. Birds have strong muscles. The structure of bone tissue helps to work with wings, like screws. congenital adaptation; helps to hunt in the water.
The chest of penguins has a pronounced keel. Muscles are attached to the keel and shoulder blades. She is responsible for lifting the wing.
Penguins have a very shortened tail, which tends to act as a rudder.
The bones of penguins are not tubular, like those of other birds, but with internal cavities. They are similar to the bones of seals, dolphins.
Thermoregulation and plumage
The birds of the north are not cold. Why? Birds have a special plumage: thick, short feathers tightly cover the body and are adjacent to each other. Such a structure does not allow heat to leave the bird's body, and the wind to blow it through.
The second protective factor is a layer of fat up to 1 cm. Thanks to it, penguins swim in icy water. However, the wings and paws are devoid of plumage - these are the most weak spots. In order not to freeze, the birds have established thermoregulation: when the limbs are very cold, warm arterial blood is supplied to them. She, having reached the problem areas, transfers her heat to the venous blood, which flows in the opposite direction; into the body.
Vision and hearing
The eyes are adapted to the fact that birds spend most of their time underwater. The cornea is flat, so there is slight myopia. The contraction of the pupils allows the eye to get used to the illumination at different depths.
The structure of the ears is not marked with a clear line. When immersed, they are adjacent to the body and tightly covered with feathers, which does not allow water to penetrate into the auricles.
Types of penguins
If we take into account modern classification penguins, the diverse world includes 6 genera and 19 species. Consider several types of these birds.
Imperial
The bird got its name for its size. The emperor penguin is a heavy and large bird. An adult male, having a body length of 115 cm, weighs 30-32 kg. With a body length of 120 cm, body weight is 40 kg. The back has plumage painted black, beautiful bright yellow or orange spots are visible on the neck. The belly is painted white. Lives in Antarctica. Birds populate the entire coast.
Royal
By outward signs, this species is similar to the previous species. However, unlike the imperial one, it has a modest body size. The plumage is also different. The body length of an adult is 95-110 cm. With such a body length, the northern bird weighs up to 17 kg.
The abdomen of adults is white. The back is black or dark gray, the head is dark. Bright spots stand out on the chest and head. The geographical distribution is quite extensive. The species lives on the South Sandwich Islands, the coastal waters of the Lusitania, on the islands of Tierra del Fuego, Macquarie, Kerguelen.
crested
This population of beautiful representatives of the genus with an interesting crest on the head is on the verge of extinction. The crest is a feature of the species. With a body length of 50 cm, the weight of the bird is 3 kg.
The belly is painted white. The eyes are red. The back and wings are gray-black. The bird's eyebrows are stripes of yellow feathers. Further, the feathers go down and form, on both sides of the eyes, unpretentious bunches. The crown is decorated with beautiful black feathers. There are 2 varieties of crested penguin: southern and northern. Types have minor differences. The southern crested penguin has longer feathers and wider eyebrows. The population has become widespread on the islands located in the Atlantic Ocean: Tristan da Cunha, Gough.
golden-haired
The golden-haired representative of the species is practically no different from other species. The only difference that distinguishes representatives of this species lies in the golden tufts of feathers located above the eyes.
The weight of birds, with a body length of 60 cm, does not exceed 5 kg. A group of birds nests on the islands of the Subantarctic, on the southern shores of the Atlantic Ocean.
Small
Miniature individuals of this species with a growth of 30 cm have a body weight of only 1 kg. The breast and legs are colored light gray, may have a whitish tint, and the back is a blue-black tone. Areal - New Zealand, Australia, Stewart Island.
Magnificent or Yellow-Eyed
A rare creature that differs from a miniature handsome man in large size. They are 2 times larger than dwarf individuals. A bright yellow stripe runs along the head.
Adele
The bird is of medium size. With a body length of 65 cm, an adult weighs 6 kg. The belly is painted white, the back is black. The eyes are surrounded by a white ring. Adele's only habitat is Antarctica and all the territories adjacent to it: the South Shetland Islands and the Orkney Islands.
Antarctic
This species is related to the Adélie penguin. The range captures Antarctica, can be found in Antarctica on icebergs.
Subantarctic or Papuan
If you put the main emperor, king and gentoo penguin in one line, the latter will take 3rd place in terms of body length and weight. The body in length reaches 85 cm, and the weight of the bird is 7-8.5 kg.
For this species, the typical coloration is a white belly and a dark back. Paws and beak are bright, orange.
Where do penguins live? Subantarctic zone, Antarctica - range of Papuan species.
Galapagos
One of the varieties of spectacled penguins. The range does not fall on cold continents. They are found in the Galapagos Islands, where the air temperature rarely drops below +18 C. Adult representatives of the species, with their offspring, bathe in warm water, the temperature of which is not typical for penguins. It is +22 C. Galapagos penguins feed on small fish and crustaceans. With a body length of 0.5 meters, the bird weighs 2.5 kg.
Spectacled
What nicknames the spectacled penguin did not receive. It is also called black-footed, donkey and African. An adult representative of the species with a body length of 65 cm has a body weight of 3-4 kg. At the bottom of the abdomen is a curved black stripe, similar to a horseshoe. Such a small thing; distinguishes the spectacled penguin from other species.
Black-footed beauties live in Namibia, adore coastal areas with a cold current, where they lay their eggs.
Where do penguins live
The range of birds is quite wide, but they prefer to be in cold climates. Birds inhabited the cold zones of the Southern Hemisphere. Mass accumulation of adult representatives of the species can be seen in the Subantarctic and Antarctic. Can be found in Peru, on the Galapagos Islands.
How long do penguins live
The lifespan of flightless birds depends on the species. The life span of small species is equivalent to 10-12 years. Imperial or royal representatives of the family good conditions and adequate nutrition can live a quarter of a century. For flightless birds, mammals, predatory fish, and huge birds are of great danger.
Penguins living in zoos are not endangered. They are cared for and are inaccessible to their natural enemies. But this does not affect life expectancy in any way.
Studies have shown that penguins are among the birds that are susceptible to respiratory infections. With a massive infection, entire colonies die. In the penguinarium, you can communicate with birds. With good maintenance and appropriate treatment, the life of a bird can be extended up to 30 years.
What do penguins eat
Bird diets include crustaceans, fish, plankton and small molluscs. Penguins like anchovies, Antarctic silverfish, squid, sardines, krill, octopus.
Depending on the type of northern bird and the body's need for food, a bird can dive under water more than 800 times in one hunt. Some individuals are saturated for 200 dives.
If we consider the structure of the nose of an inhabitant of cold regions, it works like a pump: the bird passes small prey along with water through its beak.
To satisfy their hunger, penguins have to swim 27 km. The bird can be under water (at a depth of 3 meters) for 1 hour and 20 minutes.
penguin breeding
Antarctic birds lead a collective lifestyle. While in the water, penguins gather in flocks. When they land on land, they form colonies. If we count the adult inhabitants of the ice, included in one colony, the number reaches tens, hundreds and even thousands of individuals. Birds are monogamous, so they create pairs once and for life.
Adult individuals become ready for mating and hatching offspring by 2-5 years. Females mature much earlier than males. Some species are ready to mate at 2 years old, others can only have offspring at the age of 3 years, and golden-haired representatives mate only at 5 years old.
When males reach sexual maturity and are ready to mate, their loud cries are heard, spilling over the entire continent. The voice emitted by northern birds is similar to the sound of a trumpet. With such loud sounds, the male tries to attract the attention of the female.
The nearby rocky shores become a favorite nesting spot for penguins. Some species build rather simple and primitive nests, consisting only of pebbles and including sparse vegetation. Others prefer depressions located in the rocks.
In one clutch there is a maximum of 2 eggs. True, cases were recorded when 3 eggs, painted white or green, were found in one clutch.
Both the male and the female incubate the chicks. If the male recovers to hunt, he is replaced by the female, the male lets the female go to eat.
Incubation time for chicks depends on the species. In time, it lasts 1-3.5 months. Blind penguins are born with clearly visible pubescence on the body. The weight of a small cub does not exceed 300 g.
But not all hatched chicks survive, many die from cold and hunger.
Parents only take care of their children for 21 days. At this time, they warm them and bring food. Then they leave the children and the kids have no choice but to gather in numerous colonies or nurseries; So, it is easier for them to survive low temperatures and get food. Care of the young falls on the shoulders of adult specimens that have lost their masonry. Adults begin to feed the babies and warm them.
Little penguins spend almost all the time on land, and they start diving only when the first molt has passed.
Is the penguin an animal or a bird?
Penguins have wings, but they cannot fly. The question is, is the penguin a bird or an animal? In fact, adult specimens can take to the air, but their flight is limited to short distances.
Penguins lead a sedentary lifestyle, they have everything at hand; Based on the living environment, we can conclude that the penguin is a bird and it has stopped flying.
Penguins are flightless, but well-swimming seabirds from the penguin-like order. Among those who eat penguins and their eggs, there are many predators: fur seals, lions, sea leopards, sharks, killer whales. Chick eggs can be killed by giant petrels, white plovers, skuas, and crabs. Lions, foxes, stray dogs, jackals, hyenas and other land predators love to eat penguins. The chicks are attacked by rats. Armed poachers are another enemy of penguins on land. Here the bird does not move as dexterously as in the water, where the penguin is mobile and able to swim away even from a shark. Polar bears do not eat penguins because they do not encounter them in their natural environment.
Types of penguins
There are about 20 species of penguins. They are grouped into genera:
- royal, imperial (imperial penguins);
- crested, thick-billed, Schlegel penguin, rocky golden-haired, large crested penguin (crested penguins);
- little, white-winged penguin (small penguins);
- magnificent penguin (one of a kind);
- Adélie penguin, chinstrap, gentoo penguin (antarctic penguins);
- spectacled, Humboldt penguin, Galapagos, donkey, Magellanic penguin (spectacled penguins).
Habitat of penguins
One third of their life, which lasts up to twenty-five years, penguins swim off the coast of New Zealand, Antarctica, in southern Australia, South America (Falkland Islands - Peru), South Africa and along the coast of the Galapagos Islands near the equator. Most penguins live in Antarctica and on the islands of the South Pole - birds prefer a cool climate. The exception is the equatorial waters of the Galapagos, in tropical latitudes on the shores of South America, South Africa, penguins can be seen with cold currents - Benguela, Humboldt.
What do penguins eat
Penguins eat mainly fish: anchovies, sardines and other herring, Antarctic silverfish. They also catch crustaceans, krill, and cephalopods. When hunting, penguins are afraid to be the first to enter the water, for fear of being eaten by a seal, a killer whale, which, waiting for them, often ply near the coast.
Penguins don't have many natural enemies, the most dangerous place for them is water, shallow water, where they spend a third of their lives. Seals and sharks are waiting for them near the shore. On land, penguin chicks and eggs are easy prey.
Despite the exceptional popularity of penguins, most of their species are not distinguished by sailors. But in fairness, it should be noted that this is a very difficult matter.
The largest penguin is the emperor penguin, or Forster penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri). It lives only on the coast of Antarctica and in the waters immediately adjacent to it. This penguin is named after D. Forster, the naturalist of the round-the-world expedition of Captain D. Cook. In the temperate zone, it is replaced by the closely related king penguin (A. patagonica), which breeds on scattered islands in the Southern Ocean. The emperor penguin reaches 120 cm, the smaller king - a little less than 1 m. On the sides of the neck, both species have orange spots that look like large quotation marks. In the king penguin, the front of the neck is also painted orange.
The gentoo penguin (Pygoscelis papua) has a similar distribution to the king penguin. In addition, it breeds on the Antarctic Peninsula with adjacent islands. This is a medium-sized penguin, about 75 cm high. It is easy to distinguish it from other species by the white stripe that runs along the crown of the head from eye to eye. In our literature, it is mistakenly often called donkey. But the real name of the gentoo penguin is a zoological incident, because. penguins do not live in New Guinea. Under this name, it was described by the same D. Forster, whose name is the emperor penguin.
On the coast of Antarctica and in the area of the Antarctic Peninsula, the most famous among the penguins nests - the Adélie penguin (P. adeliae), named after the beautiful wife of the head of the French Antarctic expedition, who conducted research in the 30s of the last century, D'Urville, after whom one of seas around Antarctica. Adele has a typical penguin coloration: dark coat and head, snow-white belly and chest. There is a noticeable white ring around the eyes. There are no other types of penguins similar to Adele.
Easily distinguished from other species chinstrap penguin(P. antarctica), which breeds on the Antarctic islands and in the area of the Antarctic Peninsula. Unlike the Adélie penguin, he only has a dark cap on his head, from which a "dark" strap goes to his chin.
Galapagos penguins (Spheniscus mendiculus), spectacled, or donkey (S. demersus), Magellanic (S. magellanicus) and Humboldt, or Peruvian (S. humboldti) penguins are very similar in color. The Humboldt penguin, named after the eminent German geographer, breeds along the Peruvian coast as far south as approximately 38 degrees south latitude. In the coloration of its plumage, white horseshoe-shaped spots are striking, passing above the eye through the back of the head to the upper chest, as well as a dark plane intercepting the white chest and continuing along the sides of the body. In the southern regions of the Pacific coast of South America, it is replaced by the Magellanic penguin. But between 32 and 38 degrees S. sh. the ranges of these species overlap, i.e. both species are found together. The Magellanic penguin also lives in the temperate waters of South America from the Atlantic side and on the Falkland (Malvinas) Islands. The alternation of white and dark stripes in this species is such that two dark stripes intercept the chest, and not one, as in the Humboldt penguin.
The donkey penguin, which lives only in the region of the southern coast of Africa, looks like a Humboldt penguin. There is no one to confuse him with here, since other types of penguins are not found in the waters of Africa. And he was nicknamed the donkey for his loud and unpleasant cry. The Galapagos penguin looks like a Magellanic penguin, which, however, is inferior to it in size. He lives only on the Galapagos Islands, where there are no other species of penguins.
The next related group of penguins consists of 6 species, and all have golden tufts of feathers sticking out of their heads that look like hair, giving these penguins, on the one hand, an exotic, and on the other, a strict look. the most famous of these is the crested (Eudyptes chrysocome), or "rock-jumping penguin". It breeds on most islands throughout the temperate zone of the Southern Ocean. The yellow feathers of the crested penguin begin near the nostrils and fan out very effectively behind the eyes. The name "jumping on the rocks" notices his manner of moving - pushing off with both legs at once. he jumps into the water from the shore as a "soldier", and does not dive like other penguins.
The golden-haired penguin (E. chrysolophus) lives on the islands of the temperate zone of the Atlantic and Indian Ocean sectors of the Southern Ocean and in the area of the Antarctic Peninsula. It has more yellow, or rather golden feathers on its head than the crested penguin. Their tufts start from the level of the middle of the eyes and as the hair falls behind the eyes to the back.
The Schlegel penguin (E. schlegeli), whose distribution is limited to Macquarie Island, located slightly south of the New Zealand Plateau, has the same golden-haired hairstyle. it is easily distinguished by the white sides of its head. The remaining 3 species of this group live in the area of New Zealand south of the Cook Strait. These are the Snare crested penguin (E.robustus), thick-billed, or Victoria penguin (E. pachyrhynchus) and the large crested penguin (E. sclateri). The first two species are indistinguishable from a distance. Their yellow feathers look like thick eyebrows, somewhat expanding at the back of the head, and in a large crested penguin, the "eyebrows" bristle up.
The magnificent, or yellow-eyed penguin (Megadyptes antipodus) lives in the southern part of the New Zealand region. On his head, a yellow stripe runs through the crown from eye to eye. Yellowish speckled and the rest of the head.
All of the penguins listed above, except for the emperor and king, are of medium size - about 65-75 cm. Smaller - about 50 cm - only the Galapagos penguin. But he's not the smallest either. There are two more species, whose height is only about 40 cm. These are blue, or small (Eudyptula minor) and white-winged (E. albosignata) penguins. The first lives around the main islands of New Zealand, on the Chatham Islands and off the southern coast of Australia, the second - only off the east coast of New Zealand. Compared to other penguins, they are outwardly inconspicuous - a white bottom, a bluish monochromatic top. Young birds in all penguin species have a less contrasting coloration.
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