Celebrate World Penguin Day with a few fun facts about these adorable tuxedoed birds.
1. All 17 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. Unlike most birds—which lose and replace a few feathers at a time—penguins molt all at once, spending two or three weeks land-bound as they undergo what is called the catastrophic molt.
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8. All but two species of penguins breed in large colonies of up to a thousand birds.
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9. It varies by species, but many penguins will mate with the same member of the opposite sex season after season.
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10. Similarly, most species are also loyal to their exact nesting site, often returning to the same rookery in which they were born.
