What kind of food do penguins eat?

Penguin is one of the oldest swimming birds, probably settled in Antarctica before the earth put on ice armor. There are 18 species of penguins all over the world, most of them are distributed in the southern hemisphere, can live and breed in the cold of-60 ℃, and walk like a western gentleman in a tuxedo. Let's take a look at what penguins eat.

What kind of food do penguins eat?

Penguins feed on marine zooplankton, mainly Antarctic krill, and sometimes prey on brachiopods, squid and small fish. Penguins have a good appetite, each penguin can eat an average of 0.75 kilograms of food a day, as a predator plays an important role in the Southern Ocean food chain. Penguins hunt about 33.17 million tons of krill in Antarctica, accounting for 90% of the total consumption of Antarctic birds, equivalent to half of what whales eat krill.

The habitat of penguins

Penguins usually live south of the equator and can only be seen in inaccessible places. Some penguins live in cold places, some penguins live in tropical places. But penguins don't really like hot weather and are happy only in cold climates. So there are the most penguins living in the cold ocean off the coast of Antarctica. The habitat of penguins varies with species and distribution areas. Emperor penguins like to live on ice shelves and sea ice. El-Adli penguins and Jintu penguins can live on both sea ice and exposed rocks in ice-free areas. most penguins in sub-Antarctica like to live on rocks in ice-free areas and often build nests out of stones.

Breeding habits of penguins

The life history of penguins varies with the size and geographical distribution of the species, and the reproductive cycle of the same species is also related to latitude. Some species migrate long distances to ancestral nests inland to lay eggs. Spotted-billed penguins and small blue penguins breed twice a year, while most species reproduce only once a year. King penguins breed twice in three years. King penguins and emperor penguins lay one egg at a time, while other species produce two and occasionally three eggs. Most penguins breed in spring and summer in the southern hemisphere, and some populations of Papua penguins also breed in winter. Emperor penguins take a long time to develop, so they begin to breed in autumn so that their chicks can produce in summer, when the survival rate is best.

Species status of penguins

There are not many species of Antarctic penguins, but the number is considerable. According to long-term observations and estimates by ornithologists, there are nearly 120 million penguins in Antarctica, accounting for 87% of the world's penguins and 90% of the total Antarctic seabirds. The largest number is Adele penguins, about 50 million, followed by hooded penguins, about 3 million, and the smallest number is emperor penguins, about 570000.