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Introduction to Antarctic Penguins
last update: Jan 24, 2008 05:51 PM
"They are extraordinarily like children, these little people of the Antarctic world, either like children, or like old men, full of their own importance and late for dinner, in their black tail-coats and white shirt-fronts - and rather portly withal."
- Apsley Cerry-Garrard in The Worst Journey in the World.
Seven from the seventeen penguin species live in the Antarctic region. When the first polar explorers saw these odd animals, they thought they were a kind of fish. But soon realised that they were in fact flightless birds with feathers which laid eggs. The origin of the word penguin is not known, but one possible source is that it was derived from the name of the fat under the skin, named pinguigo. The basis for this theory is that Penguins used to be killed for that fat.
Penguins are well suited to survive in the extreme Antarctica weather conditions. Their feathers are waterproof, and under the feathers is a layer of air, this combined with a layer of down close to the skin create almost optimal insulation. Just under the surface of their skin, is a thick insulating layer of blubber.
Penguins are excellent swimmers. Their wings have evolved to form small paddles, which they use to swim through the water. Their enemies are leopard seals, sea lions, killer whales and birds of prey, the latter feeding on their eggs and the chicks.
