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Penguin, the flightless birds of the Southern Hemisphere

Penguin, the flightless birds of the Southern Hemisphere

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Meet Penguin, a flightless, aquatic and countershaded bird, which spends half of its life on the land and other half, in sea.

  1. Penguin (Spheniscidae) is a carnivorous ave that is a bird with more than 18 species varying in size and shape belonging to the order Sphenisciformes.

2. The biggest myth about the penguins is that they live at the north pole. Whereas, on the contrary, they are exclusively found in the Southern Hemisphere with some species found in New Zealand, Chile, Australia, South Africa, and Argentina.

3. Out of all the species of a penguin, the only species found near the equator is the Galapagos penguin, which accounts to be the smallest species of penguin after little penguin.

4. The only feature which differentiates them from the rest of the birds is that they cannot fly. Instead, they tend to swim and spend the majority of their time in the water.

5. The small wing-like structures on their body are the white and black plumage, called flippers, which helps them in swimming through water.

6. Their black plumage protects them from the prey as they can easily camouflage in the water and are not visible from above.

7. The penguins survive by eating sea life underwater, that includes fishes, squids, crabs, and krills. But, the sad part is that they can’t taste their food because they tend to swallow the prey.

8. The tallest penguin species is called the emperor penguin. The interesting fact about them is that they tend to cuddle together to survive the chilly weather. It can live for 20-minutes under the water.

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9. Commercial fishing, climatic changes and diseases spread by the tourists are the various threats to the penguins. Because of this, it can be declared as a threatened species by the IUCN Red List.

So, this was all about penguins! What are some more flightless birds that you know?

Blog Edited By Ritika Gupta

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