This article is about penguin birds. For other meanings, see Penguin (disambiguation).

Penguins
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Sphenisciformes Family: Spheniscidae
Genera
Aptenodytes Eudyptes Eudyptula Megadyptes Pygoscelis Spheniscus

Penguins (order Sphenisciformes, family Spheniscidae) are an order of flightless birds living in the southern hemisphere. They are not, contrary to popular belief, only found in cold climates, such as Antarctica. Three species live in the tropics; one lives as far north as the Galapagos Islands and will occasionally cross the equator while feeding.

Penguins like to stay and move within large groups. Most penguins live off krill, fish, squid, and other forms of sealife that they catch while swimming underwater. They spend half of their life time on land and half in the oceans.

The largest species is the Emperor Penguin: adults average about 1.1 meter tall and mass 30 or more kilograms. The smallest penguin species is the Little Blue Penguin (also known as the Fairy Penguin), which is typically 35 to 40 cm tall and 1 kilogram. Generally larger penguins retain heat better and thus inhabit colder regions, while smaller penguins are found in temperate or even tropical climates.

Penguins emerged in the Eocene era 40 million years ago. Birds like Palaeeudyptes from the Eocene, Pachydyptes from the Miocene and the now extinct Great Auks resembled modern penguins. The links between other bird orders and penguins are still unknown, and though a distant relationship between penguins and petrels is assumed, it has not been proved. Most fossil penguins known are large, but not larger than the modern Emperor Penguin. All lived in the southern hemisphere.

A few isolated cases of homosexuality have been reported in zoo penguins; see homosexuality in animals.

Contents

1 Anatomy 2 Classification 3 Name 4 Penguins in popular culture 4.1 Computing 4.2 Politics 4.3 Comics 4.4 Film 4.5 Audio CDs 5 External links

Anatomy

Penguins are superbly adapted to an aquatic life. Their wings have become flippers, useless for flight in the air. In the water, however, penguins are astonishingly agile. Within the smooth plumage a layer of air is preserved, ensuring buoyancy. The air layer also helps insulate the bird in the icy waters of the Antarctic. The plumage of penguins in tropical and temperate zones is much thinner.

On land, penguins use their tails and wings to maintain balance.

All penguins have a white underside and a dark (mostly black) upperside. This is for camouflage. A predator looking up from below (such as an orca or a leopard seal) has difficulty distinguishing between a white penguin belly and the reflective water surface.

Diving penguins reach 6 to 12 km/h, though there are reports of velocities of 27 km/h (which are probably realistic in the case of startled flight). The small penguins do not usually dive deep; they catch their prey near the surface in dives that normally last only one or two minutes. Larger can dive deep in case of need. The Emperor Penguin has been recorded reaching a depth of 267 metres and staying submerged for 18 minutes.

On land, penguins are clumsy. They either waddle on their feet or slide on their belly across the snow. They slide on their stomachs, called "tobogganing", to conserve energy and move relatively fast at the same time.

Penguins have an excellent sense of hearing. Their eyes are adapted for underwater vision, and are their primary means of locating prey and avoiding predators; in air, conversely, they are nearsighted. Their sense of smell has not been researched so far.

Classification

ORDER SPHENISCIFORMES

• Family Spheniscidae
  • King Penguin, Aptenodytes patagonicus
  • Emperor Penguin, Aptenodytes forsteri
  • Gentoo Penguin, Pygoscelis papua
  • Adelie Penguin, Pygoscelis adeliae
  • Chinstrap Penguin, Pygoscelis antarctica
  • Rockhopper Penguin, Eudyptes chrysocome
  • Fiordland Penguin, Eudyptes pachyrhynchus
  • Snares Penguin, Eudyptes robustus
  • Royal Penguin, Eudyptes schlegeli
  • Erect-crested Penguin, Eudyptes sclateri
  • Macaroni Penguin, Eudyptes chrysolophus
  • Yellow-eyed Penguin, Megadyptes antipodes
  • Little Penguin (or Fairy Penguin), Eudyptula minor
  • White-Flippered Penguin, Eudyptula albosignata
  • African Penguin, Spheniscus demersus
  • Magellanic Penguin, Spheniscus magellanicus
  • Humboldt Penguin, Spheniscus humboldti
  • Galapagos Penguin, Spheniscus mendiculus

Name

Penguin is thought by some to derive from the Welsh words pen (head) and gwyn (white), applied to the Great Auk, which had a conspicuous white patch between the bill and the eye (although its head was black), or from an island off Newfoundland known as "White Head" due to a large white rock. According to another theory, the original name was pen-wing, with reference to the rudimentary wings of both Great Auks and penguins. A third theory is that penguin comes from the Latin pinguis (fat).

Penguins in popular culture

Penguins are popular around the world owing to their harmless nature, their upright stance for standing and walking, which humans find charming or comical, and their striking black and white plumage that is often humorously likened to a tuxedo suit.

Computing

• Sega's 1982 video-game Pengo stars a penguin.
• A penguin is a main character in a number of 1980s Konami games, and shows up as a mascot in others.
• Penguins are featured in the computer game Pingus, similar to the classic computer game Lemmings.
• The Linux mascot Tux is a penguin, and is featured in several computer games, such as Tux Racer.
• The website http://www.thepenguinconspiracy.com/ is one of several sites that talk about "evil penguins."

Politics

• The penguin is an unofficial symbol of the United States Libertarian Party.
• Penguin Vic was a character created to promote tourism in Victoria, Australia

Comics

• Opus the penguin was a main character in Berke Breathed's comic strips Bloom County, Outland, and Opus.
• Pokey the Penguin is a popular web comic.
• Chilly Willy is another web comic, based on the (penguin) character from the Commodore 64 game Chilly Willy, a clone of Pengo.
• Frobisher is a penguin (actually, a shape-shifting alien who liked the penguin shape) who appeared in the Doctor Who Monthly comic strips in the 1980s. Despite not being strictly canon, he is considered an important part of the Doctor Who mythos.
• The DC comics of Batman contained a villain called The Penguin, who has appeared in movies, television live actions programs as well as cartoons.
• Ted the penguin is a penguin of unknown age which inhabits the home of Ethan, Lucas and Scott in the Ctrl Alt Del (webcomic), ostensibly as the pet of Scott, the web-comic's Linux guru. Ted the penguin likes cold, and uh, fish.

Film

• The animated film Wallace & Gromit: The Wrong Trousers features a ruthless criminal penguin named Feathers McGraw.
• The protagonist of the dialogue-less Swiss animation Pingu, that has been running since 1982, is a penguin.
• One of the main villains of the movie Batman Returns was The Penguin who, in the film, was a part human and part penguin mutant who was raised by penguins.
• The anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion featured Pen-Pen, a pet/mascot.

Audio CDs

• Frobisher, the talking alien penguin from the DWM comics, has appeared in several of the licensed Doctor Who audio plays produced by Big Finish, including The Holy Terror and The Maltese Penguin.
• Sack Trick's Second album, Penguins on the Moon, Is the tale of four heroic penguins, who journeyed to the moon in search of a more habitable climate.

External links

• Information about penguins at pinguins.info (http://www.pinguins.info)
• PBS Nature: The World of Penguins (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/penguins/index.html)
• Integrated Taxonomic Information System (http://www.itis.usda.gov)

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