Questions

These are from the Kindergarten grade class:

1) How do penguins swim in icy water? How do they jump out of deep water?

Penguins are well adapted to swimming underwater. Their body shape allows
them to move swiftly through the water, propelled by their flippers which
are modified wings. They can turn and dodge objects in the water quite
quickly, and they can swim under ice for several minutes at a time. They
can jump quickly out of the water by gaining speed below, then springing
out onto an ice floe. They do this especially if predators (such as leopard
seals) are present in the area.

2) What do baby penguins do?

Baby penguins, like baby humans, are helpless and dependent on their
parents for food. During their first few weeks of life, they do little
except stay at the nest and wait to be fed by their parents. As they grow
bigger, the parents begin to leave them alone. The chicks leave the nest
and join other chicks in a large group, or creche. Here, they learn to
socialize with one another and their parents still come in occasionally to
feed them. Each parent can find their own chick in these creches by
voice--they can recognize their own chick's call among all the other chicks
calls quite easily. Eventually, the chicks are fully grown and no longer
fed by the parents. Then, the chicks will leave and enter the sea for the
first time. Their first year at sea is crucial--they need to learn to
forage for themselves and survive. Many chicks do not survive this first
hard year.

3) How do penguins talk to each other?

Penguins cannot produce complex songs like many of our songbirds. They
can, however, produce loud calls that often sound like a donkey. These
calls are single notes or a series of calls that help them recognize or
find each other. They are very good at picking out individual calls within
a large colony of thousands of birds, an impressive ability.

4) Do you know how many penguins there are? How do you know the number?

There are only 17 species of penguins, all found in the Southern
Hemisphere. Besides Antarctica, where five species breed, they also occur
in Australia, New Zealand, Africa, South America, and on various islands in
the southern oceans. Because they are easy to find at their colonies, all
species have been known for a long time. In fact, there are about 9000
species of birds on the planet that we know about. Mammals and birds are
relatively easy to find and identify. However, there are probably hundreds
of undiscovered species of insects and other small organisms, especially in
the tropics, that are not so easy to find.

5) What other birds live in Antarctica?

Not many other birds live in Antarctica. The five species of penguins are
by far the most numerous found there. However, there are some other flying
birds that occur in the Antarctic, at least during the summer months. These birds include skuas (related to gulls), kelp gulls, Antarctic terns, giant petrels (a type of seabird the size of an albastross), sheathbills (a type of shorebird), and several small species of petrels. These birds are just as interesting to study as penguins because they are all well adapted to this cold, harsh environment.

Thank you for your questions--they were all very good. I hope you continue
to learn about Antarctica. It is a beautiful and fascinating place and I
have been quite fortunate in being able to work here.

Cheers,
Steve

Questions, Comments
email David Hughes, djh6183@uncwil.edu
Last updated February 21, 2000