Penguins

- The King Penguin can dive to 1,100 ft (340m) and stay underwater for almost 15 minutes.

- The Emperor Penguin can survive temperatures down to -75°F (-60°C).

Penguin Distribution

32 extinct penguin have been identified and documented with the help of fossil finds. Their identification was possible because penguins have a redundant leg joint, and the breastbone to which their powerful wing muscle are attached is uniquely shaped. 17 (arguably 18) species are currently found, and they all live in the southern hemisphere.

Penguins have been around for millions of years, but the Adélie Penguin did not arrive in the Antarctic until approximatively 6,000 years ago. Because these birds need firm, ice-free ground for their nests, they were unable to settle there while the continent was still covered in ice.

The smallest penguin species live near the equator - on the Galápagos Islands for example - while larger species such as the Emperor Penguin are found in the Antarctic. This is known as the The Bergmann's Rule. In 1847, the zoologist Carl Bergmann established that individuals of a species are smaller the closer they are to the equator and that they increase in size nearer the poles. This is because warm-blooded animals with a large body volume in relation to to surface area are better adapted to storing heat and conserving energy in cold climates than smaller individuals.

Like all other penguins, King Penguins live near a food supply. They spend the breeding and molting seasons on islands, but, because they are well adapted to long-distance swimming and deep diving, the rest of the time they remain in the sea. Where cold water from the bottom of the ocean reaches the surface along the rim of the Antarctic ice shelves, it carries nutrients to the surface, and so there is a rich food supply here. In one year, a million pairs of King Penguins eat approximately 750,000 tons of lanternfish and 65,000 tons of squid. This is about 1% of the total stock of lanternfish of the entire Southern Ocean. Together with other marine birds and mammals, they have a major impact on the local food chains.

It's easy to recognize an active penguin colony. It is just as easy to spot an abandoned colony by the dark green carpet of lush vegetation that covers the previously exposed ground. The soil often remains high in nutrients for hundreds, even thousands, of years after the colony has been abandoned. While it is populated, however, not many plants are able to stand the high levels of nitrates and phosphates combined with the constant wear from penguins feet. Lichen and grass can form on the outskirts or on protruding rocks within the colony.

When it is time to breed, King Penguins start to look for a place where they can incubate their eggs and raise their young together with other penguins - this ensures that there are always other birds around to feed the young. It takes more than a year to raise a chick, molt, and eat in preparation for the next season, which is why King Penguins are able to breed only in only two years out of three.

All penguins species, including the Gentoo, are believed to have emerged somewhere near the center of the Gondwanaland continent at the point where South America, Africa, and Antarctica started to drift apart.

The largest penguin species are able to incubate only a single egg, which they keep warm under a fold of skin on top of their feet. Magellanic Penguins, on the other hand, nest in burrows and normally incubate two eggs at a time by lying on them.