Penguins, A life in the freeze land.

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Penguins, A life in the freeze land. It's all about Penguins life's that you can know about them more. According to Wikipedia encyclopedia definition, Penguins (order Sphenisciformes, family Spheniscidae) are a group of aquatic, flightless birds living almost exclusively in the southern hemisphere, especially in Antarctica. Highly adapted for life in the water, penguins have countershaded dark and white plumage, and their wings have become flippers. Most penguins feed on krill, fish, squid, and other forms of sealife caught while swimming underwater. They spend about half of their life on land and half in the oceans. The largest living species is the Emperor Penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri): adults average about 1.1 m (3 ft 7 in) tall and weigh 35 kg (75 lb) or more. The smallest penguin species is the Little Blue Penguin (Eudyptula minor), also known as the Fairy Penguin, which stands around 40 cm tall (16 in) and weighs 1 kg (2.2 lb). A penguin is a water bird that can't fly. It has webbed feet and wings that look like flippers. It uses its wing flippers for underwater swimming. Many penguins live in the icy waters in or near Antarctica. Penguins are a type of flightless bird that spends most of its life in the sea. They seldom visit land except to raise their young. Penguins have short legs and tall, torpedo-shaped bodies. On land they are able to stand upright, and because of their stature, they walk with a waddle. They may appear awkward, but penguins actually walk about as fast as people. They also climb rocky shores by hopping from rock to rock. Some penguins travel over ice and snow by 'tobogganing' - - sliding on their bellies. But penguins travel best by swimming, hour after hour. Penguins swim below the surface, and they leap above the surface for a quick breath of air. They also dive much deeper than any other bird. Some species are able to reach nearly 900 feet (275 meters) below the surface. Those deep divers can hold their breath for up to 20 minutes. There are 17 species of penguins, ranging in size from the largest emperor penguin to the diminutive fairy penguin. The emperor penguin can grow to almost 4 feet (1.2 meters) tall and may weigh up to 100 pounds (45 kilograms). The fairy penguin, also called the little penguin, stands about 1 foot (30 centimeters) tall and usually weighs about 11/2 pounds (3.3 kilograms). Penguins swim with surprising grace. A penguin's body is wedge-shaped, like a boat, and moves easily through water. Its strong, flipper-shaped wings work well under water, too; a penguin flaps them to "fly" forward while steering with its wings, feet and tail. With their dark back and white fronts, penguins look like they're wearing tuxedos. But they're dressed for success—their color pattern makes it harder for predators to see them in the ocean. Looking down at a penguin, it's hard to see its dark back against the dark depths below; looking up, it's hard to see its white belly against the sunlit surface. Penguins swim in the ocean's coldest and most food-rich currents. To survive the chill, warm-blooded penguins rely on feathers and fat for insulation. Penguin feathers are small and densely packed. The downy base of each feather traps an insulating layer of air against the bird's skin. The tips of the feathers overlap to form a waterproof outer coat. Oil from a gland at the base of the tail helps waterproof the feathers. What are Emporer Penguins like ? Emperor penguins are one of the "classic" penguin species that people imagine when they hear the name. Along with King Penguins and Adelie penguins, they are representative of the whole group. They take the dinner-jacketed formality of all penguins to its highest level and though they are able to be as awkward, gawky and get as dirty as other penguins, when they shake it all off and stand up to regain their dignity, there are few if any more stately and elegant animals on earth. Emperor penguins have yellow ear patches that are "open" fading into the white of the breast feathers, whereas king penguins have orange ear patches that are "closed" by a band of black feathers. Emperor penguin chicks have distinctive plumage with a large white face patch. Early in the 20th century, Emperor penguins were thought to be some kind of evolutionary "missing link", something that scientists thought could be proven by observing the growth of the embryo at various stages. On Scott's 1910-1913 Terra Nova expedition a small group of expeditioners set out on a winter sledging journey led by Wilson, the biologist and including the young Apsley Cherry-Garrard, famously this gave rise to the acknowledged greatest of all Antarctic adventure and travel books "The Worst Journey in the World". And How they have their feed ? Penguins eat krill (a shrimplike crustacean in the family Euphausiidae), squids, and fishes. Various species of penguins have slightly different food preferences, which reduces competition among species. The smaller penguin species of the Antarctic and the subantarctic primarily feed on krill and squids. Species found farther north tend to eat fishes, Penguins feed at sea. Most feeding occurs within 15.3 to 18.3 m (50-60 ft.) of the surface. The location of prey can vary seasonally and even daily . It primarily rely on their vision while hunting, It is not known how penguins locate prey in the darkness, at night, or at great depths, but some scientists hypothesize that penguins are helped by the fact that many oceanic squids, crustaceans, and fishes are bioluminescent (they produce light).

Though penguins are classified as birds, they cannot fly and are instead highly adapted for life in water. Their wings are flippers that allow them to spend half their lives in the water.With no predators on land, a penguin’s predators come from the sea or the sky, like the leopard seal or the skua bird. But here, the penguin’s black-and-white plumage comes in handy: Its white underside is hard to distinguish against the reflective water surface from below, whereas the black upperside camouflages them among the rocks from above. That proves penguins are smart and stylish! All remaining penguin species today are native to the southern hemisphere but not all are found in cold climates; some, like the Galapagos penguin even live near the equator.

When moving on land, penguins, with their waddling walking style, may not look so stylish, especially when they slide on their bellies across the snow, but this way of “tobogganing” conserves energy and helps them travel long distances (often dozens of miles) fast. In the water, diving penguins reach speeds from 6 to 12 km/h (3.5 to 7.5 mph), and emperor penguins, the largest of the species, may even reach up to 27 km/h (17 mph) – in flight at least. Crucial for survival is also the fact that penguins live and breed in large colonies. They use their body warmth and huddle together to keep warm, rotating those who get the coveted middle spot. The young adopt this survival strategy early on. And being a social animal also requires a high level of social interaction, including a high number of visual and vocal displays but also strategies for conflict avoidance.


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