Facts on penguins.

Penguins

The word penguin first appears in the 16th century as a synonym for great auk.When European explorers discovered what are today known as penguins in the Southern Hemisphere, they noticed their similar appearance to the great auk of the Northern Hemisphere, and named them after this bird, although they are not closely related.Penguins (order Sphenisciformes, family Spheniscidae) are a group of aquatic, flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere, with only one species, the Galapagos penguin, found north of the equator. Highly adapted for life in the water, penguins have counter shaded dark and white plumage, and their wings have evolved into flippers. Most penguins feed on krill, fish, squid and other forms of sea life caught while swimming underwater. They spend about half of their lives on land and half in the oceans.Penguins identify their mate or chick by an acoustic signal, the display call. This identification is realized in a particularly constraining environment: the noisy world of a colony of thousands of birds. To fully understand how birds solve this problem of communication, we have done observations, acoustic analysis, propagation and playback experiments with 6 species of penguins studied in the field. According to our results, it appears that penguins use a particularly efficient ''anti-confusion'' and ''anti-noise'' coding system, allowing a quick identification and localization of individuals on the move in a noisy crowd.

 The basal penguins lived around the time of the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event somewhere in the general area of (southern) New Zealand and Byrd Land, Antarctica. Due to plate tectonics, these areas were at that time less than 1,500 kilometers (930 mi) apart rather than the 4,000 kilometers (2,500 mi) of today.
All penguins are counter shaded for camouflage – that is, they have black backs and wings with white fronts.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. The dark plumage on their backs camouflages them from above.
Diving penguins reach 6 to 12 km/h (3.7 to 7.5 mph), though there are reports of velocities of 27 km/h (17 mph) (which are more 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 penguins can dive deep in case of need. Dives of the large emperor penguin have been recorded reaching a depth of 565 m (1,854 ft) for up to 22 minutes.
Penguins either waddle on their feet or slide on their bellies across the snow, a movement called "tobogganing", which conserves energy while moving quickly. They also jump with both feet together if they want to move more quickly or cross steep or rocky terrain.There are quite a few types of predators out there that find penguins to make the perfect meal. It is due to these predators that not all of them survive to become adults. Others are eaten after laying their eggs so they never make it back to care for their young. What predators a penguin has depends on the species. The larger it is the better chance it has of getting away from certain predators. Also, the location where they live may or may not have certain predators within the vicinity.There are some great qualities of penguins found in their reproduction process. They can mature for reproduction from about 3 to 8 years of age. Generally the smaller species of penguins will mature at a younger age than the larger ones. However, the smaller ones also seem to have a life span that is much shorter. A number of species only mate with the same partner year after year. This is very different than other animals or birds on Earth that we know about. They can find these lifelong partners out there even when there are thousands of penguins at the mating grounds. While most of them have a specific mating season, other species can do so any time of the year. Some can also create offspring two or three times annually rather than just once a year.Most of the time it comes down to the survival of the fittest. That means that even if they have more than one egg, only one of the offspring is going to survive. This is the one that the parents will feed and focus attention on as it has the greatest chance of one day thriving on its own. The specifics of what they will do depend on the food that is available and the type of penguin tending to the offspring. However, penguins are very good parents and give them the attention they need. They also do their best to keep them fed and to keep them safe. In many species of penguins, the lack of food or threats to their environment will trigger them to stop the reproduction process for a while. This will continue until the stressful dangers have been removed. As a result you can see significant reductions in the numbers of certain penguins due to such environmental factors. This is why protecting their environment is very important.

_Text courtesy-Wikipedia,Kurmaclass.org(Christian Coulter C)