PENGUINS can be correctly described as members of the “smoking community”(tuxedo community).When standing, these non-flying birds, with black or bluish feathers on their backs and white feathers on their bellies, look like men in fully clothed suits.
The penguins are paddling on land and look quite clumsy. But in the water, they show a completely different picture. Large members of their species can gracefully bend over the surface of the water with jumps of up to six meters in height. Penguins are excellent swimmers. Some have timed the movement at a speed of 25 miles per hour. Its long and relatively narrow wings act as efficient and powerful fins. Although they play a minor role in actual swimming, the floating feet act like oars.
The penguin's ability to recognize underwater is also impressive. Tests conducted at the San Francisco Zoo in 1963 found that penguins can distinguish sounds made by their own bodies in water and sounds made by fish. Two fish were thrown into a tank whose walls absorbed noise and avoided echoes. When four penguins collided, the lights went out and other fish spilled across the pond. In thirty seconds the penguins will have eaten all the fish! How did they find their prey? It is still a mystery.
Another remarkable ability of penguins is migration. Forty years ago, forty Adélie penguins were captured and tied up on the dark coast of Antarctica. They then flew 150 km in the middle of the Ross Ice Shelf and landed there. Two years later, three of them returned home in time for the breeding season. They could swim, run and cover many miles of coast and ice. Not bad for a bird that will not fly without a compass!
Courtship, mating and Reproduction
Of particular interest are the penguin prison and mating habits. They differ from one species of penguin to another and thus serve to keep the species separate.
The Adélie penguin is unique in its loving appearance at breeding time. The male makes a crescendo of drum sounds, slowly stretches his head and beak upwards, and flaps his fins. The female may respond with a bow with her head turned to one side. It represents acceptance, then the male leans back. You can also see a penguin giving a stone to another: "Can you tell a male and female penguin to present stones to whom?" asks naturalist R. L. Penney. His response: “A good idea, but a mistake. You both do. ""
When couples mate, normal couples usually stay married for the rest of their lives. In her book Freezing Point, Lucy Kavaler reports that a pair marked with foil bands on their legs have stayed together for five consecutive seasons. Young people usually return to where they met their friends the year before. But girls often don't come back looking for new friends. But they become more stable as they mature.
Emperor penguins nest when the environment is most hostile. Their young are born into a world of darkness and winds that can blow with the force of the hurricane.
When the female lays the egg, she gives it to the male. He wraps it in a pouch which consists of a fold of skin that sits directly above his feet and under the rollers with the fat on his stomach. The egg is thus protected from the cold. Temperatures can drop to minus 85 degrees (Fahrenheit), but the egg will stay well heated below. If the penguin sleeps upright, the egg is never in danger of falling. In times of storm, he joins the other men in the incubation phase and they hug him. They rotate so that everyone has time in the inner circle and time in the cold. If you bring the egg, the males will have nothing to eat. An emperor penguin can now lose twenty-five of its thirty-five pounds.
What about the females? While the male protects the egg, it stays in the sea and stores food in the body. After two months, she comes back big and full. Even though the man has started from where he left off, she can identify him by crying. His return practically coincides with the hatching of the egg. When the female returns, the male can leave the baby to support him while he increases his strength and weight with food.
The baby penguin crawls up on the mother's feet and stays warm under the skin fold. When she is hungry, the girl pops her head out under the crease and whistles. Then the mother spits out some of the fish she ate and the baby eats. As soon as the male returns, the two parents take turns taking care of the calf.
Threat to survival
Infant mortality from storms, exposure and the like is high in penguins. In his book The Territorial Imperative, Robert Ardrey states: "No natural danger from this planet can compete with the circumstances that weigh the life of emperor penguins."
Birds of prey such as giant leaves and southern shoes are a constant threat to Adelie penguins. Therefore, discipline plays an important role in protecting the young of this penguin species. If a bride gets lost just a foot from the nest, the parents of an adjacent nest will attack it almost ruthlessly and bite her back, head and fins as she struggles to escape. This action may seem serious, but it is to protect the baby, as it would surely be attacked by skua if it left the colony.
Emperor penguins have no creatures but humans to fear on earth. But leopard seals and killer whales are wreaking havoc in the water. When hunted, emperor penguins can take vertical leaps and first land with their feet on an iceberg up to five meters above the water surface. You also have the security of numbers. Usually, only those who lose food become predators.
However, the biggest destroyer in the penguin's life is not the hunter but hunger. When a natural food area can no longer support them, they disappear quickly. As the food supply increases, the number increases.
Although penguins seem to be members of the "smoking community", their lives are obviously not easy. The emperor penguin in particular remains alive under seemingly impossible conditions. However, it is interesting to note that this penguin is wonderfully adapted to its existence.
