phillip island nature park
Nature
Notes
PENGUINS
of the World
Q: How many species of penguins are there?
A: 17
Q: Are penguins a type of bird,
mammal, fish or reptiles?
Penguins are birds. They
have feathers and lay eggs.
Q: What are their names?
A: Adélie Penguin,
African Penguin,
Chinstrap Penguin,
Emperor Penguin,
Erect-Crested Penguin,
Fiordland Penguin,
Galápagos Penguin,
Gentoo Penguin,
Humbolt Penguin,
King Penguin,
Little Penguin,
Macaroni Penguin,
Magellanic Penguin,
Northern Rockhopper
Penguin,
Royal Penguin,
Southern Rockhopper
Penguin,
Yellow-eyed Penguin
Q: Where are penguins found?
All the penguin species are found in the Southern
Hemisphere. Contrary to popular belief, you will never
see a penguin and a polar bear together in the wild
as polar bears live in the far north of the Northern
Hemisphere. Penguins may be found in Australia, New
Zealand, South America (including the Galapagos
Islands which are not shown on the map), southern
Africa, Antarctica and sub-Antarctic Islands.
Q: How do penguins differ in size?
The Emperor Penguin
is the world’s tallest
penguin. It stands
1.2m and weighs 36 kg.
In contrast the Little
1.2m
Penguin is the world’s
smallest penguin
standing only 0.3m high
and weighing 1 kg.
33cm
Q: Are all penguins black and white?
Most penguins are black and white, but some penguins
have small patches or crests of yellow or orange around
the head or neck. One species, the Little Penguin (found
in Australia and New Zealand) is blue and white. Please
refer to the Little Penguin Nature Notes.
180º
NEW ZEALAND
AUSTRALIA
ANTARCTICA
90º
90º
South
Pole
75º
SOUTH
AMERICA
60º
45º
MADAGASCAR
AFRICA
30º
0º
Phillip Island Nature Park
PO Box 97, Cowes, Victoria, 3922
5951 2800
[email protected]
www.penguins.org.au
Q: Why are penguins dark on their backs and light on their
fronts?
Many fish also have this pattern. It provides camouflage
from predators and prey. In the sea, the dark back makes
the penguins hard to spot from above and the light
front makes them hard to spot from below.
Q: Do penguins have a layer of fat to keep them warm?
Penguins do have a fat layer in their skin but to keep
them warm they mostly use the insulation provided
by their feathers. The feather structure allows one
feather to interlock with another, trapping a layer of
air beneath, and it is the air layer that insulates the
phillip island nature park
Nature
Notes
penguin. If the feathers are not well preened and intact,
water seeps through to the penguin’s skin and it gets
cold very quickly.
Q: Do penguins fly?
This is a tricky question as penguins use the same
muscles and motion that flying birds use to move
through air, so you could say that penguins ‘fly’ through
water. A penguin has dense bones and modified wings
(flippers) so that they may push through the water with
ease.
Q: How long can penguins dive for?
Larger penguins can stay underwater longer and dive
deeper than smaller penguins. An Emperor Penguin,
for example, can dive to 550m and stay under water
for over 20 minutes, though most dives are to less than
50m and last less than 3 minutes). The Little Penguin
can dive to 73m and holds its breath underwater for
almost two minutes.
Q: What do they like to eat?
Generally a penguin’s diet consists of small schooling
fish, squid or krill (a shrimp-like crustacean).
Q: Why do penguins come
to land?
All penguin species are
drawn to land for breeding
and moulting, and often just
to rest. The amount of time
spent on land varies between
penguin species. The male
Emperor Penguin, remains out
of the water for the longest
time. During a 3-month period,
it remains on the Antarctic
sea-ice to court a female for
one month then spend two
months incubating her egg!
Q: What is moulting?
Moulting refers to the process where a penguin’s old
feathers are replaced by new feathers. The penguins are
Printed on Recycled Paper
Phillip Island Nature Park
PO Box 97, Cowes, Victoria, 3922
5951 2800
[email protected]
www.penguins.org.au
PENGUINS
of the World
not waterproof during their
annual moult. They must
stay on land and live off fat
reserves while the process
is occurring. The time it takes to moult varies. Little
Penguins, for example, stay on land for 17 days during
their moult.
Q: How many eggs do penguins lay?
Emperor and King Penguins lay one egg while all other
penguins lay two. If laying two eggs, these are spaced a
day or two apart. Interestingly, some penguins that lay
two eggs always discard one of the eggs and only ever
attempt to raise one chick.
Q: How do the parents feed their chicks?
Parent penguins feed their chicks via regurgitation.
Rather than digesting the food in their stomachs,
parents return to the chicks with it. The calling of
the chick causes the parent to bring the food up and
deposit it directly into the chick’s mouth.
Q: Do penguin parents show their chicks how to catch fish?
No, once the chicks fledge and go to sea there is no
more parental care. But parents time their breeding
cycle so that their chicks reach the water when
most food is available.
Q: What are human induced threats to penguins?
Threats include; over-fishing, pollution such as oil
spills, disruption to food-chains, development of
coastal areas, rubbish, introduced land predators
such as foxes, cats, dogs, ferrets and stoats.
Human-induced climate change may alter habitats
available to the penguins on land and at sea.
Q: How can I help?
Please put all your litter in the bin, buy fish-free
cat food and sustainably harvested fish species.
“We are both sinner and potential savior.
Whether penguins survive for another 50 million years,
or even another 50 years is going to be largely up to us.”
Lloyd Spencer Davis, 2001.