Fascinating Facts of Penguins

Penguins are a group of marine flightless birds. They lived almost wholly in the Southern Hemisphere, only one species, the Galapagos penguin, which is found in the north of the equator. Highly fitting for life in the water, penguins have counter shaded dark and white topknot, and their wings have emerged into flippers.
 The very first fact is Penguins are flightless birds. While other birds have wings for flying, penguins have adapted flippers to help them swim in the water. So we can say that they are the bird of ocean without wings.
 Large amount of penguins live in the Southern Hemisphere.
 The Galapagos Penguin is the only penguin species that speculating in north of the sphere in the wild.
 New Zealand, Australia, Chile, Argentina and South Africa are the countries where you may find large amount of penguin population.
 There are no penguins you will find in the North Pole.
 Penguins basically have a range of fish and other sea lives or species of underwater to eat.
 You will be amazed to know Penguins can drink sea water.
 It is surprisingly yes that Penguins can spend around half of their time in water and the other half on the land.
 The tallest penguins named as The Emperor Penguins of all penguin species, reaching as tall as 120 cm (47 in) in height.
 There is one quality which is different from other penguins is the Emperor Penguins can stay underwater for around 20 minutes at a time.
 Emperor Penguins often snuggle together to keep warm in the cold temperatures of Antarctica.
 Second largest penguin species named as King Penguins. They have four layers of spikes which help them to keep warm on the cold sub Antarctic islands.
 Because of the thin black band under their head these penguins known as Chinstrap Penguins. At times it looks like they are wearing a black helmet, which might be useful as they are mediated that the most threatening category in penguins.
 Crested penguins have yellow crests, and red bills and eyes.
 Yellow eyed penguins are threatened penguins native in New Zealand. Their population is believed to be around 4000.
 The smallest category of penguin is little blue penguins, average height of these category is around 33 cm (13 in) in height.
 Penguin’s black and white topknot serves as mask while swimming from above its hard to see the black plumage of their back, while the white plumage on their front looks like the sun it’s reflecting off the surface in the water when seen from below.
 In Antarctica, penguins have no land based meat - eater.

By: Tripti Varun
Content: http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/sciencefacts/animals/penguin.html