Penguin

Penguins are one of the most beloved animals on the planet!

Their tuxedo coloring, adorable waddle, and cute faces make penguins one of the most beloved animals in the world. From the equatorial deserts of Africa to the Nordic grasslands of Scandinavia, humans can’t help but ooooh and awww over the aquatic, flightless bipedal birds! A lot of folks mistakenly believe that penguins only live in the North and South Poles, but in reality, they live throughout the Southern Hemisphere. One species even nests close to the equator. However, none live in or around the Arctic Circle.

Scientists are locked in a debate about penguin taxonomy and genetic links, but they all agree that at least 15 species currently inhabit the earth.

Fun and Fascinating Penguin Facts

• Human-sized penguins waddled around the Earth in prehistoric times. The Anthropornis nordenskjoeldi reached heights of 1.8 meters (5 feet 11 inches) and tipped the scale at 90 kilograms (200 pounds). The emergence of large-toothed whales and seals likely led to the extinction of giant penguins.

• In 1948, a Florida man named Tony fashioned himself a pair of 30-pound, three-toed lead shoes and stomped around beaches at night to further a myth that a 15-foot-tall penguin ruled the surf at night. He did it for ten years, never got caught, and didn’t reveal the hoax until 40 years later.

• Penguins’ black and white coloring is defensive camouflage.

• Despite the Falkland’s active landmines, the island cluster has morphed into a makeshift nature preserve for penguins because the animals are too lightweight to trigger the mines.

• The oldest known penguin species in the fossil record is the Waimanu manneringi, which lived 62 million years ago.

Scientific Name

The general scientific name for penguin is Spheniscidae. However, the exact etymology of the word “penguin” is up for debate. The word first appeared in the 1700s as a synonym for the great auk, a now-extinct marine bird that sported similar coloring to penguins but wasn’t related. Some believe the made-up synonym derived from the French word “pingouin,” which sailors used for auk birds.

The Oxford English Dictionary, American Heritage Dictionary, and Merriam-Webster credit Welsh with the word. They hypothesize that penguin was a mash-up of “pen” — the Welsh word for head — and “gwyn” — the Welsh word for white — because great auks were first seen on White Head Island in Newfoundland.

Other linguists believe penguin has Latin roots, linking it to the word “pinguis,” meaning “fat” or “oil.” They pin this theory on a Germanic word for penguin, “fettgans,” which translates to “fat goose,” and a Dutch word for the animal, “vetgans,” which also roughly translates to “fat goose.”

Evolution

Scientists believe penguins evolved from flying birds, and are kin to the order Procellariiformes which includes petrels, albatrosses, loons, and frigatebirds. As penguins adapted to aquatic habitats and developed abilities for diving and swimming, they lost the ability to fly. The Waimanu manneringi, from New Zealand, is the earliest known penguin species, present during the Cretaceous Period 60-65 million years ago.

Some researchers theorize that penguins are related to members of the Alcidae family because they resemble other marine birds like puffins, cormorants, and razorbills. But this is viewed more as convergent evolution, where groups of species evolve independently but similarly.

Types of Penguins

Appearance and Behavior

Appearance

Penguins are animals with a signature look: black backs and white fronts. The technical term for their coloring is “counter-shading.” It’s an evolutionary advantage that serves as spectacular camouflage because penguin predators have difficulty distinguishing between a white underbelly and a reflective water surface. On land, the black back helps penguins blend into the rocky terrain on which many species nest and breed.

They may look sleek and leathery, but penguins are covered in animals that are feathers, and their plumage serves two primary purposes. Firstly, it helps with buoyancy and contributes to their agile swimming skills. Secondly, penguin feathers act as insulation, which allows the birds to withstand frigid water and air temperatures.

Several penguin species have a distinct aesthetic flare. Rockhoppers sport fancy crests and feathers on their heads. Chinstrap penguins feature a white band across their jaw areas, and golden feathers adorn the necks and heads of giant penguins. Cape penguins don distinctive pink patches above their eyes, and little blue penguins have blue-tinted feathers instead of jet-black.

Every so often, a penguin is born with light-brown feathers instead of black. They’re known as isabelline penguins, and they tend to live shorter lives because of their inferior camouflage — but they are beautiful!

Average Sizes of Penguin Species

Behavior

When land-bound and standing upright, penguins use their tails and wings for balance. If time is of the essence, penguins slide on their bellies and use their feet to propel and steer. The technique is called “tobogganing.” Penguins are also skilled jumpers and do so when traversing prickly terrain.

Penguins are very social animals that hang out in large groups called colonies. As such, they’ve developed vocal and visual communication skills and standards. Adult male penguins are “cocks,” and females are “hens.” A group of penguins on land is called a “waddle”; a group in the water is a “raft.”

Habitats

Wild penguins live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere, save for banded penguins, which live near the equator and sometimes migrate into the Northern Hemisphere. Significant populations exist in Angola, Antarctica, Argentina, Australia, Chile, Namibia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the Falkland Islands. Furthermore, penguins in captivity live in zoos and animal sanctuaries around the world.

The chart below details specific habitat regions for the different penguin species.

Primary Locations of Penguin Species Around the World

Diet

All penguins are carnivores that dine on marine life. They’re pescatarians! Specific diets, however, are regionally dependent. The chart below details the regular menu for each animal.

What Different Species of Penguins Eat

Predators and Threats

Climate change is a massive threat to several penguin species, and marine-life conservationists are working against time to develop solutions. Natural penguin predators include leopard seals, sharks, killer whales, fur seals, and sea lions.

Reproduction, Babies, and Lifespan

Reproduction

Penguins breed on either ice blocks or rocky outcrops. Except for yellow-eyed and Fiordland species, penguins breed in large colonies, ranging from 100 pairs to hundreds of thousands for the chinstrap, king, and Macaroni.

Penguins stay monogamous for the breeding season, but chinstrap penguins often mate for life! Most pairs produce two eggs per clutch. Larger penguins, aka the “great penguins,” only lay one. Most species only lay one brood per mating season, but little penguins may lay several.

Relative to adult penguins’ sizes, their eggs are small. However, the shells are extra-thick and serve as protection against rough terrain. Fascinatingly, when Aptenodytes forsteri (emperor penguins) lose an egg or a chick, they try to kidnap another pair’s offspring. Penguin snatching seldom succeeds, but it doesn’t stop them from trying!

Aptenodytes forsteri males handle all the incubation duties. Both parents share responsibility for the other species. Incubation shifts can last days or weeks while one parent heads out to forage for food.

Babies

Baby penguins are called “chicks” or “nestlings.” When they gather in a group, it’s called a “crèches.” Newborn penguins are dependent on their parents until they grow waterproof feathers. For some species, that may only be seven to nine weeks. For other species, it may be as long as 13 months.

Lifespans

A penguin’s life expectancy is dependent on species, but ranges from 6 to 26 years.

Average Lifespan of Penguin Species

Population

Some penguin species are stable. Climate change and human encroachment, however, are pushing others closer to extinction. Below, is an outline of penguin population estimates, in addition to their conservation status according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Population Estimates and Conservation Status