Today is National Penguin Awareness Day! As if we weren’t already
aware of how amazingly adorable penguins are. Not to mention, they’re
one of the most unique species of animals on the planet. Among their
many interesting characteristics, we pulled 11 facts you might not
already know about these adorable creatures.
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#1 All seventeen species of penguins are naturally found exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere.
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#2 Emperor Penguins are the tallest species, standing nearly 4
feet tall. The smallest is the Little Blue Penguin, which is only about
16 inches.
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#3 The fastest species is the Gentoo Penguin, which can reach swimming speeds up to 22 mph.
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#4 Penguins’ striking coloring is a matter of camouflage; from
above, their black backs blend into the murky depths of the ocean. From
below, their white bellies are hidden against the bright surface.
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#5 Fossils place the earliest penguin relative at some 60 million
years ago, meaning an ancestor of the birds we see today survived the
mass extinction of the dinosaurs.
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#6 Penguins ingest a lot of seawater while hunting for fish, but a
special gland behind their eyes—the supraorbital gland—filters out the
saltwater from their blood stream. Penguins excrete it through their
beaks, or by sneezing.
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#7 All but two species of penguins breed in large colonies of up to a thousand birds.
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#8 It varies by species, but many penguins will mate with the same member of the opposite sex season after season.
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#9 Penguin parents—both male and female—care for their young for
several months until the chicks are strong enough to hunt for food on
their own.
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#10 Because they aren’t used to danger from animals on solid ground, wild penguins exhibit no particular fear of human tourists.
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#11 Most species are also loyal to their exact nesting site, often returning to the same rookery in which they were born.
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