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They're black and white and cute all over: penguins!
Penguins are a special family of birds.
They are easily recognized by their coloring: all penguins have white bellies and a dark
or black back.
Penguins also have large heads, short necks, and stand upright on land.
Like all birds, penguins are warm-blooded, covered in feathers, and lay eggs.
Unlike most birds, penguins are flightless, which means they cannot fly.
Penguins can't fly because they don't need to.
Instead of wings for flying, penguins have flippers.
They are excellent swimmers, and do all of their hunting in the water.
In fact, penguins spend so much time in the water that we say they are aquatic.
You may already know that penguins live in Antarctica, the icy frozen continent around
the South Pole.
However, not all penguins live in cold places!
Penguins can be found everywhere from Antarctica to the equator, and they live in places like
Africa, Australia, South America, and even the Galapagos Islands - but all but one kind
of penguins live exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere.
There are about seventeen different species of penguins of varying sizes, each with a
different pattern of feathers and colors.
The smallest species of penguin is officially named the little penguin, but they're also
called blue penguins and fairy penguins.
Little penguins may only reach a height of about 13 inches or 33 centimeters, and only
weigh a bit over 3 lbs or 1.5 kilograms.
On the other end of the scale, the largest species of penguin is the emperor penguin.
Emperor penguins grow 4 feet or 1.1 meters tall and may weigh nearly 100 lbs or 45 kg.
Every other type of penguin falls somewhere in between these two extremes.
Penguins survive and thrive in some of the coldest water and in some of the coldest places
on the planet.
They can do that because they have thick layers of blubber or fat that keeps them warm, as
well as feathers that are packed tightly together to insulate them.
Penguins have a special oil that they spread over their feathers to make them waterproof,
so preening their feathers and taking care of them is very important.
Penguins are carnivores.
They eat krill, fish, squid, and other small ocean animals.
Something interesting about penguins is that they cannot taste their food - but they don't
mind, because they swallow their prey whole.
While they're hunting in the ocean, penguins are in danger from predators like seals and orcas.
The pattern of colors on their bodies - dark on the top, and light underneath - is called
countershading, and it helps camouflage the penguins while they swim.
On land, penguins cannot walk very fast.
They may hop or waddle but penguins that live in snowy climates have found a faster way
to get around.
It's called 'tobogganing,' since the penguins slide across the ice and snow like a sled,
and it helps the penguins move quickly across long distances on land.
Penguins come ashore to lay their eggs, and raise their chicks.
They live in huge colonies, called rookeries, to help provide protection from predators
or freezing temperatures.
These colonies may have thousands, or eve hundreds of thousands, of penguins in them.
Penguins lay only one or two eggs per year, and the mother and father take turns keeping
the eggs warm and feeding and protecting their chicks.
Penguin chicks may look very different from their parents, but before too long they will
grow their adult plumage and be ready to hunt on their own.
Although not all species of penguins are endangered, many are.
Bad weather, destruction of their natural habitats, and hunting or poaching for their
oil and eggs can reduce their population.
In addition, overfishing by humans can leave penguins without enough food to eat.
Fortunately, all species of penguins are legally protected, in an effort to keep their populations
happy and healthy.
I hope you enjoyed learning about penguins today.
Goodbye till next time!