For other uses, see Penguin (disambiguation).

Penguins (order Sphenisciformes, family Spheniscidae) are an order of flightless birds living in the southern hemisphere.

Species and habitats

There are 17 or 18 known species worldwide, depending on whether the two Eudyptula species are counted as distinct. Although all penguin species are native to the southern hemisphere, they are not, contrary to popular belief, found only in cold climates, such as Antarctica. In fact, only a few species of penguin actually live so far south. Three species live in the tropics; one lives as far north as the GalГЎpagos Islands and will occasionally cross the equator while feeding.

The largest species is the Emperor Penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri): adults average about 1.1 meters (3 ft 7 in) tall and weigh 35 kilograms (75 lb) or more. The smallest penguin species is the Little Blue Penguin (also known as the Fairy Penguin), which stands around 40 cm tall (16 in) and weighs 1 kilogram (2.2 lb). Generally larger penguins retain heat better, and thus inhabit colder regions, while smaller penguins are found in temperate or even tropical climates.

Penguins are gregarious. Most feed on krill, fish, squid, and other forms of sealife caught while swimming underwater. They spend half of their life on land and half in the oceans.

Evolution

Penguins are actually very old birds. The oldest fossils of penguins emerged in the Eocene era more than 40 million years ago. However these fossils proved that prehistoric penguins were already flightless and seagoing, so their origins may go as far back as 65 million years ago

Anatomy

Penguins are superbly adapted to an aquatic life. Their wings have become flippers, useless for flight in the air. In the water, however, penguins are astonishingly agile. Within the smooth plumage a layer of air is preserved, ensuring buoyancy. The air layer also helps insulate the bird in the icy waters of the Antarctic. The plumage of penguins in tropical and temperate zones is much thinner.

On land, penguins use their tails and wings to maintain balance for their upright stance.

All penguins have a white underside and a dark (mostly black) upperside. This is for camouflage. A predator looking up from below (such as an orca or a leopard seal) has difficulty distinguishing between a white penguin belly and the reflective water surface.

Diving penguins reach 6 to 12 km/h, though there are reports of velocities of 27 km/h (which are probably realistic in the case of startled flight). The small penguins do not usually dive deep; they catch their prey near the surface in dives that normally last only one or two minutes. Larger penguins can dive deep in case of need. The Emperor Penguin has been recorded reaching a depth of 875 feet (270 metres) and staying submerged for 18 minutes.

On land, penguins are clumsy. They either waddle on their feet or slide on their bellies across the snow, a movement called "tobogganing", which allows them to conserve energy and move relatively fast at the same time.

Penguins have an excellent sense of hearing. Their eyes are adapted for underwater vision, and are their primary means of locating prey and avoiding predators; in air, conversely, they are nearsighted. Their sense of smell has not been researched so far.

They are able to drink salt water safely, because a gland near their eyes filters excess salt from the bloodstream. The salt is excreted in a concentrated fluid from the nasal passages.

Penguins have no external genitalia.[1] Consequently, chromosome testing must be done in order to determine a penguin's sex.

Sexuality and mating habits

Most penguins mate for life. They generally raise a small brood, and the parents cooperate in caring for the clutch and for the young.

In early February 2004 the New York Times reported a male pair of chinstrap penguins in the Central Park Zoo in New York City were partnered and even successfully hatched a female chick from an egg. Other penguins in New York have also been reported to be forming same-sex pairs.

This was the basis for the children's picture book And Tango Makes Three. The couple about whom the book was based, Silo and Roy, would see further interesting developements in their relationship when, in September 2005, Silo left Roy, for a female penguin only to come back to Roy in a few weeks.

Zoos in Japan and Germany have also documented male penguin couples. The couples have been shown to build nests together and use a stone to replace an egg in the nest. Researchers at Rikkyo University in Tokyo, found twenty such pairs at sixteen major aquariums and zoos in Japan. Bremerhaven Zoo in Germany attempted to break up the male couples by importing female penguins from Sweden and separating the male couples; they were unsuccessful. The zoo director stated the relationships were too strong between the couples.

Gallery

Classification

ORDER SPHENISCIFORMES

• Family Spheniscidae
  • King Penguin, Aptenodytes patagonicus
  • Emperor Penguin, Aptenodytes forsteri
  • Gentoo Penguin, Pygoscelis papua
  • Adelie Penguin, Pygoscelis adeliae
  • Chinstrap Penguin, Pygoscelis antarctica
  • Rockhopper Penguin, Eudyptes chrysocome
  • Fiordland Penguin, Eudyptes pachyrhynchus
  • Snares Penguin, Eudyptes robustus
  • Royal Penguin, Eudyptes schlegeli
  • Erect-crested Penguin, Eudyptes sclateri
  • Macaroni Penguin, Eudyptes chrysolophus
  • Yellow-eyed Penguin, Megadyptes antipodes
  • Little Penguin (Blue or Fairy Penguin), Eudyptula minor
  • White-Flippered Penguin, Eudyptula albosignata
  • African Penguin, Spheniscus demersus
  • Magellanic Penguin, Spheniscus magellanicus
  • Humboldt Penguin, Spheniscus humboldti
  • GalГЎpagos Penguin, Spheniscus mendiculus

Name

Penguin is thought by some to derive from the Welsh words pen (head) and gwyn (white), applied to the Great Auk, which had a conspicuous white patch between the bill and the eye (although its head was black), or from an island off Newfoundland known as "White Head" due to a large white rock. This may be, however, a false etymology created by Dr John Dee in his book on Prince Madoc of Wales, supposedly one of the discoverers of America. By this Dee hoped to cement Queen Elizabeth I's claim, as a Tudor, to the New World. This theory is also undermined by the fact that penguins live nowhere near Newfoundland, nor do they generally have white heads. According to another theory, the original name was pen-wing, with reference to the rudimentary wings of both Great Auks and penguins. A third theory is that penguin comes from the Latin pinguis (fat).

Penguins in popular culture

Penguins are popular around the world primarily for their unusually upright, waddling pace and (compared to other birds) lack of fear towards humans. Their striking black and white plumage is often likened to a tuxedo suit and generates humourous remarks about the bird being "well dressed".

Perhaps in reaction to this cutesy stereotype, fictional penguins are occasionally presented as grouchy or even sinister. The popular Sanrio character Badtz Maru is an example, being cute yet somewhat surly. Feathers McGraw is a wanted criminal. The 1960s television cartoon character Tennessee Tuxedo would often escape the confines of his zoo with his partner, Chumley the walrus. Also, the webcomic Fluble features an enormous penguin conspiracy run by numerous diabolical, if often inept, penguins. In the children's movie Madagascar (film), the penguins are cast as spies.

Computing

• Sega's 1982 video-game Pengo stars a penguin.
• A penguin is a main character in a number of 1980s Konami games, and shows up as a mascot in others.
• Penguins are featured in the computer game Pingus, similar to the classic computer game Lemmings.
• Penguins feature prominently in the popular Yetisports series of Flash games.
• The Linux mascot Tux is a penguin, and is featured in several computer games, such as Tux Racer.
• The Gentoo Linux distribution is named after the Gentoo Penguin.
• The Nintendo 64 game Super Mario 64 features a level in which a mother and baby penguin are prominent characters. These penguins are favorite characters of Nintendo producer Shigeru Miyamoto and go on to appear in other Nintendo titles such as Mario Kart 64, Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix, and Mario Pinball Land.
• The penguin appears in a recent edition of the video game Pitfall. In fact, one part of the game involves fighting the protagonist as a penguin. Strangely unlike the typical South American penguins, the penguins from Pitfall have crests like the crested penguins.
• The website War Of The Penguins.com is one of several sites that talk about "evil penguins." The website concentrates on the military invasion of the world by a hypothetical Penguin Army.

Politics

• The penguin is an unofficial symbol of the United States Libertarian Party.
• Penguin Vic was a character created to promote tourism in Victoria

Comics

• Opus the penguin was a main character in Berke Breathed's comic strips Bloom County, Outland, and Opus.
• Sparky is a main character in the weekly cartoon This Modern World by Tom Tomorrow.
• Pokey the Penguin is a popular webcomic.
• Chilly Willy is another web comic, based on the (penguin) character from the Commodore 64 game Chilly Willy, a clone of Pengo. These only coincidentally share the same name as the theatrical cartoon character.
• Frobisher is a penguin (actually, a shape-shifting alien who liked the penguin shape) who appeared in the Doctor Who Monthly comic strips in the 1980s. Despite not being strictly canon, he is considered an important part of the Doctor Who mythos.
• DC Comics' Batman contains a villain named the Penguin, who has also appeared in movies and live-action television programs as well as cartoons.
• Ted the penguin is a penguin of unknown age which inhabits the home of Ethan, Lucas and Scott in the Ctrl Alt Del (webcomic), ostensibly as the pet of Scott, the web-comic's Linux guru.
• Linus the penguin, named after Linux creator Linus Torvalds, is a character in the webcomic Nukees. He befriended Gav while the mad scientist was trapped in Antarctica after fleeing his creation, a homicidal AI named Teri. While Linus is not known to speak, Gav and the other Nukees seem to understand him, and he is quite good with computer hacking despite the lack of hands (he types with his beak).

Film

• Chilly Willy is the name of an animated character in Walter Lantz's series of theatrical shorts. ([2])
• The animated film Wallace & Gromit: The Wrong Trousers features a ruthless criminal penguin named Feathers McGraw.
• The protagonist of the dialogue-less Swiss animation Pingu, which has been running since 1982, is a penguin.
• There were 4 penguins (Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private) featured as prominent (although not the main) characters in Dreamworks' 2005 animated film Madagascar. They were featured again as main characters in a short Christmas special, The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper.
• One of the main villains of the movie Batman Returns was the Penguin who, in the film, was raised by penguins. In this movie he also formed an army of penguins to attack Gotham city. Their equipment included back mounted rockets and laser eye sights.
• The anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion featured Pen-Pen, a pet/mascot.
• The documentary March of the Penguins (2005) details a year in the life of a family of Emperor Penguins. http://wip.warnerbros.com/marchofthepenguins/
• The movie Billy Madison featured a penguin that was a friend of Adam Sandler's character.
• There was a penguin character named Wheezy in Disney's Toy Story 2. He would later make a cameo appearance at the beginning of the direct-to-video Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins.
• Martini the penguin is a major supporting character in the Christmas television special Olive, the Other Reindeer.
• Mr Forbush and And The Penguins (Mr Forbush and And The Penguins at the Internet Movie Database)
• The penguin is Jack's power animal in Fight Club.
• The Tender Tale of Cinderella Penguin is a ten minute animated film based on the story of Cinderella, featuring a cast of medieval penguins. It was directed by Janet Perlman and produced by the National Film Board of Canada.

Literature

• The children's book Mr. Popper's Penguins details Mr. Popper and his 12 performing penguins.
• Three children's books by Janet Perlman--Cinderella Penguin, The Emperor Penguin's New Clothes, and The Penguin and the Pea--retell classic children's stories with a penguin twist.

Sports mascots

• Penguins are the namesake of the Pittsburgh Penguins (mascot's name: "Iceberg") of the National Hockey League and the sports teams of Youngstown State University (mascot's name: "Pete").
• The school mascot of New England Conservatory of Music (Boston, MA) is the Fighting Penguin.

Places

Penguin, Tasmania is a town in Tasmania, Australia, located at 41В° 7′0″S, 146В° 4′15″E (Map Quest).

Audio CDs

• Frobisher, the talking alien penguin from the DWM comics, has appeared in several of the licensed Doctor Who audio plays produced by Big Finish, including The Holy Terror and The Maltese Penguin.
• Sack Trick's second album, Penguins on the Moon, is the tale of four heroic penguins who journeyed to the moon in search of a more habitable climate.
• dredg's fifth album "El Cielo" features a song called "Triangle" with repetitious lyrics asking "We live like Penguins in the desert, why can't we live like tribes?"

External links

• Penguin information on 70South
• Gentoo penguin webcam from the Antarctic
• Information about penguins at pinguins.info
• PBS Nature: The World of Penguins
• Integrated Taxonomic Information System
• Seaworld Penguin Information
• Penguin Weblog
• Pictures Penguins
• Silly and Fun Penguin Website with Live Penguin Cam!bg:РџРёРЅРіРІРёРЅРѕРІРё

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