Penguins

INTRODUCTION:

Penguins are birds. There are "birds", but are definitely birds because they have feathers. Perhaps more surprising to some people is that despite spending the most time in the water and cannot fly through the air like many other birds, they are birds of flight.

Some species of penguins are kept most of the time swimming in the ocean far from land, which creates some difficulty for us to see them. Fortunately, during the breeding season come ashore to nest and raise their young. After the nesting and return to the sea shortly after returning to earth again, or a floating ice floe for a couple of weeks to molt their feathers. It is during these breaks out of the water when we can see well.

DISTRIBUTION:

Penguins live in the Southern Hemisphere. These birds are pelagic and remain the most of the year swimming in cold water temperatures under 20 ° C, except for the Galapagos penguin that lives in water of about 23 ° C. 

Several species nest in Antarctica and nearby islands, the Emperor Penguin so during the austral winter. Others prefer to breed in South America, Falkland Islands, Argentina, Chile, Peru and the Galapagos penguin in these islands of Ecuador. Others go to Africa, nestling in the south of the continent, Namibia and South Africa. The remaining nests in New Zealand and southern Australia and smaller islands south of these localities.

ADAPTATION TO THE ENVIRONMENT:

Not only are the penguin sea birds, most fish in Antarctic waters of the Southern Hemisphere oceans. Many of them swimming in near-freezing waters where people cannot swim without protection against the cold, we can enter these waters and give a few strokes, but our bodies will not last long enough to say that we have swum. 

These birds may remain in these cold water most of the time because your body has evolved to live in this environment. The wings have become flippers them, unable to fly in the air, but in the water. Yes, the penguins swim fins exert the same way they do the other birds keeled when they fly, which is why some zoologists considered among the most effective bird flight. The feathers form a rigid body on the outside but soft and warm on the inside, something like wadding coats inside and the outside shell. 

As if the protections of the feathers off, under the skin have a thick layer of fat. This fat was because many penguins were killed by the sailors who were engaged in killing whales and other animals for oil and animal fat. Luckily this does not happen.

  

Other specializations of the Penguins are to compact bone. In the other bones of flying birds, though stiff, are not solid, are hollow cavities. Penguins having no such cavities bones weigh more, and this helps them stay under the water surface more easily. As a counterweight to the fat of the skin that floats.

OTHER ADJUSTMENTS:

The peak I have long, in some species is well pointed. As they feed on fish, squid, crustaceans, krill (the Antarctic shrimp) and other marine animals, the peak shape helps them catch prey. It also serves as defense. If you see a penguin in difficulty, be very careful if required to approach him to help. Some species, even those that appear to be completely harmless, we can start a strip of skin of a sting. The fins are also dangerous, the Emperor Penguin can pump up from one leg to a man, and there have been cases.

LOCOMOTION:

They have legs in the back of the body and the earth can walk and even run faster than us. They walk so upright; sometimes stagger when walking as do the ducks. At least one species, the Rock hopper Penguin, moved by giving land jumping. Also slide on the snow as slides. 

As in most of the birds, on each leg have four fingers. Three front toes and one is later. The hind toe is small and is kept separate. The three forwards are long, thick and are joined by a webbing. 

When swimming exercises their wings as they do other birds in flight, this action produces the force required to move. The legs and tail length varies according to species, used as a rudder.

REPRODUCTION:

Most penguins nest once a year. Usually form colonies where they congregate to millions. Both parents care for the chicks. The Emperor Penguin breeding during the austral winter in Antarctica, incubating the egg between its legs in temperatures of 40 º C below zero.

PREDATORS:

Penguins are hunted by leopard seals, sharks and orcas occasions. Eggs and chicks are often victims of the skies, gulls, ibis, foxes, lizards and snakes, depending where you are to the colony.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SPECIES:

All penguins are studied in order Sphenisciformes Spheniscidae family, but within this family is not all penguins are the same species are actually quite different in form and behavior. Vary in size from the Penguin Small, who fails the feet and weighs just over a kilogram, to Emperor Penguin which exceeds one meter high and can weigh up to 45 kg with respect to habitat, the Galapagos penguin lives in a warm area while the Adelie penguin, and others, rarely leaves the Antarctic region. However, drastic differences are found in the nest. As mentioned, the breeding of the Emperor Penguin is very peculiar, though the King Penguin is perhaps even more intriguing, and the rest of the penguins, well, this is one of the topics discussed in the species.