Life around the southern hemisphere
A popular question is: why don't polar bears eat
penguins? The answer is simple: because polar
bears only live in the North Pole and penguins
only in the South Pole. But why does this
misconception keep coming up?
In Latin "penguis" means something like fat or
well-fed. This is a hallmark of auks and guillemots,
birds that live in the far north.
And although these birds are not related to
penguins at all, the seafarers simply applied the
name to all similar-looking birds that wore a thick
layer of fat against the cold.
But penguins don't only live at the South Pole,
actually they can be found in all oceans of the
southern hemisphere. The flightless birds also
inhabit the coastal deserts of Chile and the
rainforests of New Zealand.
Of the 17 species alive today, only two have
colonized the inhospitable ice desert. The dainty
Adélie penguin and the majestic emperor penguin
breed on the Antarctic mainland.
Rockhopper, chinstrap, gentoo, golden-crested
and king penguins, on the other hand, like it less
chilly. Their breeding grounds are on the islands
of the Southern Ocean.
Fly in the water
Penguins have adapted to life in and around water
and have given up flying in the course of
evolution.
Not quite, one might think, because they literally
fly under water. Their wings are transformed into
fins that provide propulsion and buoyancy when
swimming and diving. With their torpedo-shaped
body, they can reach speeds of around 25
kilometers per hour.
Penguins are particularly skilled underwater
Unlike their flying relatives, penguins have heavy
bones. This means they have less buoyancy in the
water. Emperor penguins can hunt at depths of up
to 500 meters.
The sea is their food source. Here they hunt fish,
crabs and small luminous crustaceans, the krill.
Their black and white plumage offers perfect
camouflage: dark on top to protect them from
enemies, white on the bottom for hunting
camouflage.
Penguins see well underwater.