Penguins

In our last post we met the king of the sky the Eagle which is one of the fastest and strongest bird well today we will meet the bird which can not fly, yep its a bird and it can't fly . It comes under Aquatic category, if you guessed Penguins you are right.


Classification:
Kingdom-Animalia
Phylum-Chordata
Class-Aves
Infra class-Neognathae
Order-Sphenisciformes
Family-Spheniscidae

Species:
-Almost all penguin species are native to the Southern Hemisphere.
-They are not found only in cold climates, like Antarctica.
-Only few species of Penguins live so far south.
-Several species are found in the Temperate zone and only one species, Galapagos Penguin, Lives in the Equator.
-Emperor Penguins are the largest living Penguins whereas, Little Blue Penguin (Fairy Penguins) are the smallest.

Features:
-Weight The Emperor Penguins weigh 35 Kg or more and the little blue penguins weigh around 1kg.
-Length The Emperor Penguins grow up to 1.1 meters where as the little blue Penguins grow up to 40 cm tall.
-They have counter shaded dark and white plumage, theirs wings have become flippers.
-Penguins mostly eat krill's, squid, fish and other sea organisms caught under water.

Penguins Spend their life half on land and half in the ocean.
Larger Penguins are usually found in colder regions while smaller penguins are found in the temperate or equatorial regions. Some Prehistoric species attained enormous sizes becoming as heavy and tall as humans. Such penguins were not restricted to Antarctic regions, i.e., cold regions they also occurred at diverse climatic regions.

                                  Penguins have no fear of humans but they do get nervous once the distance is less than 3 meters and hence the tourists are not supposed to approach closer than 3 meter distance from the penguins, but they are not expected to withdraw if the penguins come closer.

Other Posts: Elephants, Blue Whale, Eagles.