7 Fun Facts About Penguins

Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless and communicative birds. The popular misconception is people think that penguins live in the North Pole, this is not true as penguins live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere.

Penguins are cute, small, affectionate, loyal and loud birds.

Here are 7 Fun Facts About Penguins

• Penguins are cute birds that possess the average life span of 15 to 20 years, they are 16 to 45 inches in size and they weigh 2 to 88 pounds. This all varies depending on the type of penguin. Factors such as environment and climate change can affect the life span of a penguin.
• Penguins have a gland that filters out salt from the bloodstream and allows them to drink ocean water.
• Penguins spend half of their life on land; socializing, cuddling, reproducing, raising their young ones and the other half in the water; bathing, swimming and hunting for food. Penguins can hold their breath up to 20 minutes underwater.
• Penguins, unlike other birds, cannot fly but they have flippers, webbed feet, and sleek shape to help them swim in the water and they all have the black and white pattern, this provides a form of countershading which allows them to hide from predators like leopard seals while they swim.
• Sure, penguins are cute but like other creates, they fight. Some fights are resolved without the spilling of blood and some get ugly.

• Penguins cuddle each other to protect each other and to keep warm especially during the cold.

• Penguins have a different experience of molting. Penguins lose all their feathers at once during a process called catastrophic molt. They limit this process to just a few weeks because during the molting, they are unable to hunt which results to compulsory fasting.

READ ALSO: My PHD Journey: The Motivation Behind My Research Project On Social Enterprises

Here is an extra fun fact about penguins; most of them stay with their mate for many years and lay only one or two eggs at a time. Parents then take turns in keeping their eggs warm, feeding and protecting the chicks when hatched.