Penguin Facts: Penguins

Penguin Facts

Penguins are a well loved flightless bird, and even though there are over 35 species of flightless birds in the world, penguins are the most recognized. Maybe its their silly attire, maybe its their signature waddle, or maybe its their desire to mate for life. When humans dress and walk funny, we joke about them. So why do we think penguins are so interesting?

We picture penguins as small gentlemen and ladies strutting around in their tuxedos, but the Emperor Penguin can weigh as much as 75 pounds. That is one plump gentleman!
When a penguin slides across the ice on its belly, it is called “tobogganing”. When humans want to go tobogganing, they need a sled.
Nature loves Mac-n-Cheese as much as we do, the Macaroni Penguin is

the largest populated species size with nearly 12 million pairs.
Shunning the beauty standards of today, penguins think that blubber is sexy. Penguins rely on this layer of fat to insulate them from the extreme cold.
The ultimate stay at home dads, the male penguin is responsible for incubating the eggs while the female penguin goes off each day to earn the bacon… or fish.
Never take a penguin to a sushi bar, you couldn't afford the bill! Penguins are piscivorous, which means that they survive solely on fish and shellfish.
While their waddle type walk is slow (2 miles per hour) penguins are very fast swimmers. Most penguins swim at 6 miles per hour, but some can go as fast as 15 miles per hour!
Penguins swim so fast because of a tool called the bubble boost- when they fluff their feathers under water the bubbles are released giving them an extra push. When humans blow this many bubbles in the water, everyone else gets out of the pool…
If penguins were to spend all their life on land, they would need glasses. Every penguin is short-sighted, but they all see very well under water.
Baby penguins are not waterproof, and will react like an expensive sweater thrown in the washing machine if they get wet. It is because of this that their parents must bring them their food until they grow their waterproof feathers.

From the Gentoo to the Chinstrap, the Southern Rockhopper to the Galapagos Penguin, each of the 18 species of penguins is unique in their own right. All is found in the Southern hemisphere and every single one is absolutely adorable.