1

King penguins
Penguins are one of the most easily recognized species of flightless
bird. A colony of king penguins here gathers on South Georgia, an
island near the southern tip of South America. King penguins can stand
about 1 metre tall, making them the second-largest penguin species.

Penguins riding on an iceberg

The enormous size of some icebergs make them ideal resting and
nesting habitats for penguins in the Antarctic. Penguins usually walk or
hop and toboggan along on their breasts, pushing with their wings and
feet. They swim with great speed and agility in the water.
 2

Emperor penguins with chicks

As animals and birds grow they change shape and appearance as well
as size. Emperor penguin chicks are covered with down (short, fluffy
feathers) until they reach maturity.

Little Blue Penguin

This penguin’s brilliant blue coat stands out against the dull colours of
the surrounding rock, but provides excellent camouflage in the water.
The smallest of 18 penguin species at 41 cm (16 in) long, the little blue
penguin makes its home on the southern coasts of Australia and New
Zealand.
 3

Galápagos Penguin
Although Galápagos penguins (Spheniscus mendiculus) appear
awkward on land, the flipper-like wings of these social, flightless birds
make them powerful underwater swimmers. Compared to other
varieties of penguin, they are short in stature, averaging about 50
centimetres (20 inches) tall when fully grown. Both male and female
parents share equally in rearing their young, taking turns to incubate
the eggs and provide food. Only a few thousand breeding pairs exist
today, on two of the Galápagos Islands off the Pacific coast of Ecuador.
Wild dogs have been a particular problem on one of the islands, but
efforts are underway to eradicate the predators and protect the
penguins.
 4

Adélie Penguins
Adélie penguins are social birds, living in colonies numbering in the
tens of thousands on the coasts of Antarctica. They have dense
plumage that enables them to survive in extreme cold temperatures.
The Adélie penguin is named after the wife of 19th-century French
polar explorer Jules Sébastien César Dumont d'Urville.
 5

Penguins Tobogganing on Land

Penguins cannot fly and on land they walk with an awkward, waddling
gait. But in icy or snow areas penguins can travel great distances by
tobogganing on their stomachs, paddling themselves forward with their
wings.
 6

Penguin Porpoising
Penguins are strong, swift swimmers, spending as much as 80 per cent
of their lives in water. These flightless birds often leap out of the water,
soaring in a graceful arc before plunging into the water again. This
practice, known as porpoising, enables the penguin to breathe without
slowing its swimming speed. Porpoising may also help penguins escape
killer whales, leopard seals, and other predators.

Penguin Rookery
Penguin rookeries are breeding areas where large numbers of penguins
gather to mate, breed, and raise their young. The largest penguin
rookeries, where hundreds of thousands to millions of penguins may
gather, are located along the coast of Antarctica and on several
Antarctic islands. Penguins always return to the rookery where they
were born.

Jackass Penguins on Boulders Beach, South Africa

 7

Boulders Beach provides a sheltered nesting place for a colony of

Jackass penguins. The beach lies within the sweep of False Bay on the
eastern side of the Cape Peninsula, close to plentiful supplies of fish,
but away from the pounding waves of the Atlantic Ocean. Mainland
colonies are rare, and although the numbers of Jackass penguins are
declining overall, the penguin colony at Boulders has increased in size
in recent years.

Penguin Keeping Its Young Warm

Penguins always return to their ancestral nesting sites to lay their eggs
and rear their young. The emperor penguin, the largest of the
penguins, lays its single egg during the coldest time of the year, when
temperatures drop as low as -66° C (-80° F). The egg is incubated on
top of the parent’s feet, protected by abdominal folds of skin. Young
chicks remain under these abdominal folds for a short time until they
are able to regulate their own body temperature.