To Chris my fellow nerd King penguins share beaches with huge elephant seals
CONTENTS What Are Penguins By Design 10 Birds of a Feather Get a Move On 14 Making a Meal of Things 16 Self Defence 18 Hot and Cold 20 Born this Way 22 Ice Ice Baby 24 Love Life 26 Social Life 28 Little and Large 30 To Scale 32 And the Award Goes To 34 Conservation 36 Index 6 8 12
WHAT ARE PENGUINS Penguins are a group of flightless birds that split their time between land and sea Penguins are chubby with short legs and wings shaped like flippers They have dark feathers over their backs and pale ones on their bellies A group of penguins can be called a waddle on land or a raft in the water Depending on which biologist you ask there are between 17-20 species of penguin and these can be split into six distinct groups Royal penguin King penguin Chinstrap penguin Humboldt penguin Yellow eyed penguin Little penguin Crested penguins have red bills red eyes and yellow feathered crests on their heads Great penguins are the king penguin and the emperor penguin They have thin beaks and colourful patches on either side of their head Brush tailed penguins have long tail feathers that sweep the ground as they walk Banded penguins are named after the black band on their chest They also have spots on their bellies and black beaks with a little white mark on them The yellow eyed penguin is the only remaining species in this group It is named after the distinctive colouring around its eyes Little penguins have blue tinged feathers and their scientific name Eudyptula means good little diver
Nom Nom Penguins are carnivores which means they eat other animals They hunt in the sea and most commonly prey on fish Penguins also eat squid lobsters crabs eels jellyfish seahorses and tiny shrimp like creatures called krill Home Sweet Home The equator is an imaginary line dividing the north and south of our planet Nearly all penguins live below the equator but Galápagos penguins sometimes venture north of it Some species live as far south as icy Antarctica but penguins live in lots of other habitats including rocky areas beaches and coastal forests People often imagine penguins and polar bears hanging out together but they would never meet in the wild Polar bears only live in the very north of the Earth known as the Arctic Circle Polar Region C North Pole Northern hemisphere Polar Region C Southern hemisphere South Pole Arctic Circle Equator Antarctica 7
