Penguin

This article is about penguin birds. For other meanings, see Penguin (disambiguation).

Penguins (order Sphenisciformes, family Spheniscidae) are an order of flightless birds living in the southern hemisphere. They are not, contrary to popular belief, only found in cold climates, such as Antarctica. Many species live as far north as the Galapagos Islands and will occasionally cross the equator while feeding. Penguins like to stay and move within large groups. Most penguins live off krill, fish, squid, and other forms of sealife that they catch while swimming underwater. They spend half of their life time on land and half in the oceans.

The largest species is the Emperor Penguin: adults average about 1.1 meter tall and mass 30 or more kilograms. The smallest penguin species is the Little Blue Penguin (also known as the Fairy Penguin), which is typically 35 to 40 cm tall and 1 kilogram. Generally larger penguins retain heat better and thus inhabit colder regions, while smaller penguins are found in temperate or even tropical climates.

Penguins emerged in the Eocene era 40 million years ago. Birds like Palaeeudyptes from the Eocene, Pachydyptes from the Miocene and the now extinct Great Auks resembled modern penguins. The links between other bird orders and penguins are still unknown. A distant relationship between penguins and petrels is assumed, but not proved. Most fossil penguins known were large, but not larger than the modern Emperor Penguin. All lived in the southern hemisphere.

A few isolated cases of homosexuality have been reported in zoo penguins; see homosexuality in animals.

Anatomy

Penguins are superbly adapted to an aquatic life. Their wings have become flippers, useless for flight in the air; in the water, however, penguins are astonishingly agile. Within the smooth plumage a layer of air is preserved, ensuring buoyancy. This is the reason a chain of air bubbles stretches behind a diving penguin. The air layer also helps insulate the bird in the icy waters of the Antarctic. The plumage of penguins in tropical and temperate zones is much thinner. On land, they use their tails and wings to maintain balanced. When there is an emergency, they would drop to the ground immediately and stretch their wings start to creep fast on snow. Sometimes they even can slide down a slope using their tails and wings to control directions.

All penguins have a white underside and a dark (mostly black) upperside. This is for camouflage. A predator looking up from below (such as a Killer Whale or a Leopard Seal) has difficulty distinguishing between a white penguin belly and the reflective water surface.

Diving penguins reach 6 to 12 km/h, though there are reports about velocities of 27 km/h (which are probably realistic in the case of precipitate flight). The small penguins don't usully dive deep. Their prey is caught near the surface, and most dives are only one or two minutes in duration. They can dive deep in case of need, however: the large Emperor Penguin has been recorded reaching a depth of 267 metres and staying down for 18 minutes.

On land, penguins are clumsy. They either waddle on their feet or slide on their belly across the snow. However, they can actually run as fast or faster than most humans. They slide on their stomachs, called "tobogganing", to conserve energy and move relatively fast at the same time.

Penguins have an excellent sense of hearing. Their eyes are adapted for underwater vision, and are their primary means of locating prey and avoiding predators; in air, conversely, they are nearsighted. Their sense of smell has not been researched so far.

Classification

ORDER SPHENISCIFORMES

• Family Spheniscidae
  • King Penguin, Aptenodytes patagonicus
  • Emperor Penguin, Aptenodytes forsteri
  • Gentoo Penguin, Pygoscelis papua
  • Adelie Penguin, Pygoscelis adeliae
  • Chinstrap Penguin, Pygoscelis antarctica
  • Rockhopper Penguin, Eudyptes chrysocome
  • Fiordland Penguin, Eudyptes pachyrhynchus
  • Snares Penguin, Eudyptes robustus
  • Royal Penguin, Eudyptes schlegeli
  • Erect-crested Penguin, Eudyptes sclateri
  • Macaroni Penguin, Eudyptes chrysolophus
  • Yellow-eyed Penguin, Megadyptes antipodes
  • Little Penguin (or Fairy Penguin), Eudyptula minor
  • African Penguin, Spheniscus demersus
  • Magellanic Penguin, Spheniscus magellanicus
  • Humboldt Penguin, Spheniscus humboldti
  • Galapagos Penguin, Spheniscus mendiculus

Name

The name penguin was originally applied to another bird, the Great Auk, formerly found in the North Atlantic, but now extinct. Indeed the auks look somewhat like penguins, and occupy a similar environmental niche in the Northern Hemisphere, but are not related. Penguin is thought by some to derive from the Welsh words pen (head) and gwyn (white), applied to the Great Auk, which had a conspicuous white patch between the bill and the eye (although its head was black), or from an island off Newfoundland known as "White Head" due to a large white rock. According to another theory, the original name was pen-wing, with reference to the rudimentary wings of both Great Auks and penguins. A third (not widely accepted) theory is that penguin comes from the Latin pinguis (fat).

Penguins in culture

Computing

Sega's 1982 video-game Pengo stars a penguin. The penguin also is a main character in a number of 1980s Konami games, and shows up as a mascot in others. The Linux mascot Tux is a penguin, and is featured in several computer games, such as Tux Racer. Penguins are featured in the computer game Pingus, similar to the classic computer game Lemmings.

Politics

The penguin is an unofficial symbol of the United States Libertarian Party.

Film

The animated film Wallace & Gromit: The Wrong Trousers features a ruthless criminal penguin named Feathers McGraw. Also, the protagonist of the dialogue-less Swiss animation Pingu, that has been running since 1982, is a penguin.

One of the main villains of the movie Batman Returns was The Penguin who is part human and part penguin and was raised by penguins.

Comics

Opus the penguin was a main character in Berke Breathed's comic strips Bloom County, Outland, and Opus.

Pokey the Penguin is one of the most popular web comics.

Chilly Willy is another web comic, currently less popular than Pokey, based on the (penguin) character from the Commodore 64 game Chilly Willy, a clone of Pengo.

Frobisher is a penguin who appeared in the Doctor Who Monthly comic strips (Sixth Doctor Who) of the 1980s. Despite not being strictly canon, it is considered an important part of the Doctor Who mythos.

The DC comics of Batman contained a villain called The Penguin and has been in movies, television live actions programs as well as cartoons.

Audio CD's

The Maltese Penguin featured private-eye and talking penguin Frobisher's return. Frobisher was in another CD called The Holy Terror.

External links:

www.pinguins.info: Information about penguins