PENGUINS

Emperor penguins Français : Manchots empereurs (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Penguins are classified as a type of bird even though they don’t fly. They are very fascinating to observe though. There are twenty different species of penguins that have been identified. Some live in the hot heat of Africa while others live in below freezing temperatures in Antarctica. They also vary in their body size and even the designs on them. Yet the all have some common elements in place.

Penguins engage in social behaviors with their colony and often live a very happy existence. They mate for life and that is very different from many other creatures out there. More than half of the human population can’t even say that anymore! They also take very good care of their young. The males play a very active role in caring for the eggs which is different again from other types of animals who leave the female to take care of it all on her own.

The diet of a penguin is mainly fish as they all tend to live very close to bodies of water. Even those in captivity at zoos have access to live fish and to plenty of water to swim in. Penguins are believed to be very intelligent creatures too. They are able to adapt to a variety of circumstances in order to survive. They are amazingly fast swimmers and they can do so for hours at a time.

They are also very curious creatures that won’t do harm to people or other animals. They seem to interact very well with humans. Yet most of the time this doesn’t happen so that they can be observed in their natural environment without any variations due to the appearance of humans around them. In some tourist locations though people walk up to the penguins all the time without incident.

When they are on land, the penguins really have no real predators to worry about. Those that live in the Antarctic due have the issue of the weather though. It does claim the life of hundreds of penguins annually. They do have predators in the water though in the form of leopard seals and sharks. Their black and white color helps to camouflage them against such predators while they are in the water.

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