Where do penguins live?

Penguins are one of the oldest swimming birds. They are likely to have settled in Antarctica before wearing ice armor. They mainly live in the southern hemisphere. There are 17 or 18 species of penguins known all over the world, most of which are distributed in the Antarctic region. There are also penguins in Cape Town, a tourist city in South Africa on the hot African continent. Let's take a look at where penguins live.

Where do penguins live?

Penguins usually live south of the equator and are only 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, far away in the cold ocean off the coast of Antarctica, penguins live in the greatest numbers. Penguin habitats vary according to species and distribution areas. Emperor penguins prefer to perch on ice shelves and sea ice. Adélie penguins and gentoo penguins can live on both sea ice and exposed rocks in ice-free areas. Penguins in sub-Antarctic mostly prefer to perch on rocks in ice-free areas and often use stones to nest.

What do penguins eat?

Penguins feed on marine zooplankton, mainly Antarctic krill, but also on brachiopods, squid and small fish. Penguins have good appetites, eating an average of 0.75 kilograms per day, and play an important role as predators in the Southern Ocean food chain. Penguins prey on about 33.17 million tons of krill in Antarctica, accounting for 90% of the total consumption of Antarctic birds, equivalent to half of the krill eaten by whales.

Why are penguins not afraid of cold?

Although the Antarctic is extremely cold, penguins have been tempered by thousands of years of snowstorms. Their bodies are thick with fat, and their feathers have become overlapping and closely connected scale-like. This special feather is not only difficult to penetrate the sea water, but even if the temperature is close to minus 100 degrees Celsius, it will not be able to break through its thermal defense. Moreover, penguins have evolved a unique vascular system over a long period of time. Arteries and meridians are staggered, and cold blood flowing back to the heart and hot blood flowing out of the heart can exchange heat, thus ensuring the temperature of the blood.

Why can't penguins fly?

There have long been several theories as to why penguins are unable to fly, with one suggesting that some species lose their ability to fly because of a lack of ground predators. Another idea is the biomechanical hypothesis that wings must be used to perform two different tasks when birds fly and dive, and that it is impossible to build wings that are good at both. Penguins once faced an evolutionary choice between flying in the air or swimming flexibly underwater, and as wings became more efficient when penguins were diving, their ability to fly became weaker and weaker. At some point, flying becomes very taxing, so the best option is to give up flying and let the wings shrink to flippers.