Crazy Facts about Penguins!

 Information from: Penguin - Wikipedia

Today I will be talking about penguins.

Facts About Penguins:

There are many penguins with different Habitats, and penguins can live in the Southern Hemisphere & Galapagos Islands

And that’s not all penguins can live in locations such as Angola, Antarctica, Argentina, Australia, Chile, Namibia, New Zealand, and South Africa.

The average lifespan of a penguin can range up to where they live; for example, some penguins can only live up to 6 years max, or some can live up to 25 years old, so the average life span ranges from 6 – 25 years ( Depends on the species you’re talking about ).

The size of a penguin can range up from 1.3 ft all the way to 3.7 ft in nowadays penguins. For example, the emperor penguin is the most giant penguin nowadays at 3.7 ft, or you can say 1.1m tall, and the little blue penguin with the smallest at only 1.3 ft tall or .3 meters tall.

The weight for a penguin can again average around which species you’re talking about. For example, the emperor penguin can weigh up to 35kg, and the little blue penguin can weigh as little as 1kg, so the weight is around 2 – 78 pounds or 1 – 35 kg.

As you can see from the images of penguins. Penguins have a distinct black on their back and white on their font. Some species have distinctive markings or colors, such as yellows and orange.

Penguins have a diet containing Seafood such as fish, krill, squid, and other sea animals, and I will repeat this in the future text.

Penguins have certain predators such as Seals, Sea Lion, and Killer Whales.

Penguin’s top speeds aren’t that fast but compared to a human, they will go zoom right past you with a whopping 6 – 9 kph or ( 4 – 6 mph )

There are a whopping 17 – only 20 species of Penguins in the world, and I will go through all 20 later.

Conversation Status:  5 Species of Penguins are Endangered: ( The “ Northern Rockhopper, “The “ Erect crested, “ The “ Yellow-eyed, “ The “ African, “ and finally, The “ Galapagos. “ )

5 Species of penguins are Vulnerable such as ( The “ Humboldt, “ The “ Macaroni, “ The “ S. Rockhopper, " The Fiordland, “ And finally, the “ Snares, “ )

And last of all, 3 Species of Penguins are Near Threatened, which in the future could mean extinction for them. ( The one and only “ Emperor Penguin, “ The biggest penguin. The “ Magellanic Penguin” And the “ Royal Penguin.”)

Many people miss the point of penguins and think that all penguins live in the Arctic or Antarctica, but just because they are native to the southern hemisphere doesn’t mean all are found just in the Antarctic. Many species inhabit warmer climates, with one in particular – the Galapagos Penguin – that calls the region near the Equator home.

Interesting Penguin Facts ( that you may not even know! )

1. Penguins can’t fly, but they can swim as fast or faster than a human

The penguin’s wings aren’t wings but flippers to make them move underwater. They still act clumsy on land but can move underwater super-fast. They are so agile, ducking and weaving, that their action in the water looks like a bird in flight.

2. Penguins are speedy underwater and are deep-sea divers.

When penguins dive into the water super-fast, they can get speeds up to 12 kph, and when in high gear, some can reach up to 27 kph, which for divers are insane speeds. The more giant penguins, like the emperor, can go much deeper, with the emperor able to dive to depths of 565 meters deep, holding their breaths up to 22 minutes long!

3. I will say this in the future, but Penguins spend as much time on land as they do in the water.

They will spend, on averagely, half of their life under water and half of their life on land. And roughly, that doesn’t sound much, especially for a penguin. But remember that’s like 10  Years under water for the giant penguins.

4. Penguins use a layer of air for various benefits.

When underwater, the layer of air that is trapped in the smooth plumage of the bird provides “ buoyancy. “ The air layer acts as an insulator in cold air so they won’t be as cold.

5. The diet of the penguin is met with underwater diving.

Most of the time, it looks like penguins are diving for fun, but because their food is sea animals. The Penguin called “ Gentoo Penguin “ could dive up to 450 dives a day, foraging for just some food to survive for the day.

6. Penguins have a unique underwater vision.

The eyes of the penguin have a unique adaptation to water so that they can look around underwater without any problems with their eyes and can see clearly in underwater unless the water is very dark and very foggy.

7. Penguins are highly social.

Because they tend to live in large colonies of penguins together, Penguins have endless opportunities for social interaction with their buddies in the penguin colonies and, as a result, have several vocal and visual signals that they have developed to communicate with other penguins part of the colonies and maybe other colonies too.

8. They have large extended families.

Penguins also breed in large colonies. The Gentoo Penguin ( The penguin which can dive up to 450 times a single day looking for food! ) can number just 100 pairs, where as other species have colonies in the size of several hundred or even thousands of penguins in a single colony. Just imagine to be able to see an entire penguin colony together; it would be massive!

9. Penguins Know the value of working together.

In harsh environments, Penguins will be together and huddle together to stay warm and conserve energy together to be able to get food when the climates cool down. Once a bird in the center has warmed up, it moves to the perimeter, and this continues so that each penguin gets a turn to be in the center to be warm and conserve energy together.

10. Monogamy is expected in the penguin world.

Pairs will stick together during the breeding season. Often, they will re-couple afterward, or it depends. So, they can take care of the baby, and soon when the baby gets old enough to be by itself, they will either leave it by itself to do its life, and the mother and father will go their separate ways and go by themselves.

 

Penguins are called “ Spheniscidae . “They are called aquatic, flightless birds. Most the penguins live in the Southern Hemisphere. A special penguin that only lives north of the Equator is called the “Galapagos” Penguin.

How Penguins adapt to life:

Penguins Highly adapt to the ocean as their life mainly because they have a dark black back and light white front so they can become camouflaged with the sea. They use their flippers to move around in the water to hunt predators or get away from predators trying to eat them. For Example, Penguins mostly eat Krill, Fish, Squid, and other forms of sea animals they can feast on. Penguins use their bills to capture sea animals and swallow them whole. At the same time, swimming and a penguin have spiny tongues to feast on the sea animals and powerful jaws to grip slippery prey like a fish because they have slippery skin gills. Scientists have roughly estimated that penguins spend around half of their entire lives underwater in the oceans, and about half of their others live out of the water on land to sleep, take care of their babies, and eat with other penguins.

The Largest species of penguins and the smallest species of penguins:

The largest species of penguin is called the “Emperor Penguin,” And it is because, on average, in adulthood, they are as tall as 1.1 meters tall or, for all your Americans, 3 ft and 7 in tall, and they weigh a whopping 35 Kg, or you can say 77 lb. Since we are on the topic of the most significant things, how about we talk about the small stuff example, the smallest penguin on earth? The smallest penguin on earth is the “ Little blue penguin. “ It is a whopping only 33 cm tall, or you can say 13 in tall, and only weighs a whopping 1 kg or 2.2lb. You can say it’s a dumbbell because I can lift a 1kg dumbbell.

How penguins are doing today and in prehistoric times:

Today, Penguins are more significant than general and inhabit colder regions areas, And Small Penguins inhabit regions with temperatures around 60 degrees or tropical temperatures and tropical climates. Some prehistoric penguins were massive, and some of the penguins which were massive were nearly as tall or pretty much as tall as an adult human, and to believe they were the weight of an adult human. It’s crazy to think that penguins were the size and weight of humans at one point. They could have taken our world if we were thinking about the penguins, which had a human's technology and IQ. The massive prehistoric penguins mostly lived in the great diversity of species in the subantarctic regions. And scientists believe there were at least one giant species in an area around 2000 km south of the equator 35 Mya during the late Eocene, a climate decidedly warmer than today.

Prehistoric times of the word penguin:

The word penguin, which we use every day to describe a specific animal nowadays, first appeared in the literature at the end of the 16^th century. When European explorers were exploring around the Southern Hemisphere and suddenly found what we know today called penguins. They noticed a similar appearance to the great auk of the northern hemisphere and named them after this bird. Even though the penguins and the bird weren’t closely related nor were they near related again, they were the first to find it, so they got to name it and decided to name the now we call it penguins nowadays. The Etymology of the word penguin is still debated to this day. As many people are thinking, the English phrase penguin is not apparently of French, Breton, or Spanish origin ( the latter two are attributed to the French word “ pingouin “ ) , but first appears In English or the Dutch.

Some dictionaries suggest a derivation from the Welsh pen, “ head, “ and Gwyn, “ white, “ including the Oxford English Dictionary, one of the enormous dictionaries including the American Heritage Dictionary, The Century Dictionary, and Finally the Merriam Webster. The basis that the name was initially applied to the great auk, either because it was found on White heat Island ( Welsh: Pen Gwyn ), Which is located in the area of Newfoundland, or because it had white circles around its eyes and, surprisingly just like human do and they missed out that the head of the penguin was black. An alternative etymology links the word to Latin pinguis, which translates to the word “ fat, “ or you can also say “ oil “if you don't know.  Support for this etymology can be found in the alternative Germanic word for penguin, which means the word ‘ fettgans, “ or you can say in English “ fat goose, “ and the related Dutch word called vetgans. And adult male penguins are called “ cocks “ for some reason, and I’m not sure why but the females of penguins are called “ hens. “ A group of penguins on land is actually called “ waddle. “ And then a group of penguins in the water is called for some reason “ raft. “This is funny with the names, but they sound like they just got different animal names and put them on the penguins.

The Word “ Pinguinus “

Since 1871, The Latin word Pinguinus has been used many times in scientific classification to name the great auk’s genus fully. ( Pinguinus impennis is the meaning of the word “ penguin without flight feathers “ in a language I don’t know ). A sad fact is that in the mid-19th century, the penguin Pinguinus impennis actually went extinct, which was confirmed as early as 2004 through genetic studies. The genus Pinguinus belongs to the family called the “ auks, “ or you can say ( Alcidae ), within the order of the Charadriiformes, which is the type of genus of animals from the size of small to medium-large birds just like a penguin with the Charadriiformes genus with over 390 species of birds which is that type of the genus.

The birds, now known as penguins, were discovered later and were so named by the sailors who had found them or the penguins, primarily because of their physical resemblance to the great auk. Despite this resemblance, they are not auks and are not closely related to the great auk in the first place. They do not belong in the genus Pinguinus and are not classified in the same family and order as the great auk. Because since 1831, they were organized by the person Charles Bonaparte in several distinct genera within the family called Spheniscidae and the order Sphenisciformes.

Systematics and Evolution

Living and recently extinct species

The number of extinct penguins is debated. Depending on which authority is followed, penguin biodiversity varies between 17 to only 20 living species in all of the penguins living in the subfamily Spheniscinae. Some sources consider the white flipped penguin a separate Equdyptula species, so some of the authorities think that it is not a Spheniscinae and instead think it is an Equdyptula. Still, this hasn’t been proven, so only time will tell. While another treats it as a subspecies of the little blue penguin ( the little blue penguin is a small penguin weighing only 1kg and is the smallest penguin in penguin species at only 1 ft tall ) ,  the actual situation seems to be more complicated.
Similarly, It is unclear whether the royal penguin is a separate species or merely a color morph of the macaroni penguin. I have no idea why it is called the macaroni penguin. Why are we calling penguins food now? The status of the rockhopper penguin is also unclear.

Subfamily Spheniscinae – Modern penguins in today’s date

Genus: Apternodytes – a person said: great penguins

Living Species: King penguin, Aptenodytes patagonicus,

Emperor penguin, Aptenodytes forsteri

Genus: Phygoscelis – brush-tailed penguins

Living Species: Adelie penguin, Pygoscelis adeliae

Chinstrap penguin, Pygoscelis Antarctica

Gentoo Penguin, Pygoscelis Papua

Genus: Eudypltula – little penguins

Living species: Little Penguin, Eudyptula minor

Australian little penguin, Eudyptula novaehollandiae

 

 

 

Genus: Spheniscus – banded penguins

Living species: Magellanic penguin, Spheniscus magellanicus

Humboldt penguin, Spheniscus humboldti

Galapagos penguin, Spheniscus mendiculus

The African penguin, Spheniscus demersus

Genus: Megadyptes

Living species: Yellow-eyed penguin, Megadyptes antipodes

Waitahha penguin, Megadyptes waitaha

( This penguin Waitahha penguin is now extinct and is disputed )

 

 

 

Genus: Eudyptes – crested penguins

Living species: Fiordland Penguin, Eudyptes pachyrhynchus

Snares penguin, Eudyptes robustus

Erect crested penguin, Eudyptes sclateri

Southern rockhopper penguin, Eudyptes chrysocome

Northern rockhopper penguin, Eudyptes moseleyi

Royal penguin, Eudyptes Schlegel ( disputed )

Macaroni penguin, Eudyptes Chrysolophus

Chatham penguin, Eudyptes chathamensis ( The penguin is now extinct )