Why are penguins not shy? Why do Penguins do not freeze the paws on the ice? Giant penguins weighing eighty kilograms lived in New Zealand forty million years ago.

Penguins are a pretty creature, amazing and beautiful in their own way. No wonder they often become characters of various cartoons - many believe that Penguin is something fluffy, warm and thick, approximately like a homemade cat. This, of course, is not so, but several curious facts are associated with these creatures.

Penguins are afraid of the taway, and naturally - the latter with enthusiasm hunt. When the penguins are unknown, there is a natural enemy nearby, they crowded on the edge of the ice, while the most courageous member of the flock risks dive. If he remains alive, the rest follow him (see the facts about kids).
Not all penguins live in polar latitudes. Galapagos penguins, for example, live on the islands of the same name, and then there the average annual temperature is about +18 degrees Celsius.
The world's largest penguins are imperial. Ten months a year, from twelve, they live in Antarctica (see the facts about Antarctica).
Penguins really do not shine in cold water due to the thick layer of fat and tightly adjacent to each other.
Polar types of penguins are able to withstand temperatures up to -60 degrees
Penguins have no legs too, because the number of nerve endings in them is minimal.
Imperial penguins - monochrome, they make up a couple for life.
Penguins are very reverent about their eggs. One day a group of geologists stole an egg from them to eat it, but the pack of penguins began to pursue them. No, no plot for the horror movie - penguins just silently went followed by people. Geologists decided to give them an egg, after which the pursuit ceased.
Papuan Penguins when swimming are developing a speed of over 35 kilometers per hour.
On slippery ice, penguins are often moving, licking on the stomach and pushing out the surface with wings and paws.
Penguins prefer to catch fish in the upper layers of water, but if necessary, they can dive into a depth of 150-200 meters.
Penguins are the only birds in the world that can walk in a vertical position (see facts about birds).
Not all penguins are harmless cuties. Stone penguins, for example, differ rather aggressive temper. They can easily attack any object that do not like them.
Once a year, penguins grow new feathers, getting rid of old.
Penguins do not need fresh water - they are able to drink salted sea water, as special glands in their organism filter salt.
The imperial penguins are hunting on average every two weeks, coming to the dump. For this break, they may lose up to half of their mass.
In penguins, experienced old males teach young to hunt.
The most common penguins in the world are gold-haired. They are numbered about twenty million.
All types of penguins live in large colonies, except one - magnificent penguins living in New Zealand.
Imperial penguins have no eggs, and males.
Expressing gentle feelings, a glasses of a glasses Penguin carefully strokes his female on the head of the wing.
Penguins only seem awkward. Yes, on land, it is, but in the water they turn out to be amazingly deft and agile creatures.
Antarctic penguins are equipping their nests using stones and land as building materials.
Less than all types of penguins water love magnificent penguins. Most of their lives they spend on land.
All penguins spin painted into black. This allows you to better attract all the heat - black, as you know, contributes to heating.
Penguin - Linux operating system symbol.

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Penguin's Day is a holiday that is celebrated on April 25 in the world. It is devoted to the preservation of these unique lacking birds, most of which live only in Antarctica and off the coast of the Southern Ocean.

Global climate change and the growth of interest in the use of marine bioresources Antarctic can lead to negative consequences for penguins and other inhabitants of the fragile ecosystem of this region.

Where do Penguins live?

Penguins live in the southern hemisphere: off the coast of Antarctica, New Zealand, southern Australia, South Africa, throughout South America coast from Falkland Islands to Peru.

Penguins prefer coolness, so in tropical latitudes appear only with cold currents - Humboldt on the west coast of South America or Bennel flow, arising from the Cape of Good Hope and washing the Western Coast of South Africa.

The most warm habitat of Penguins - Galapagos Islands, located at the equator.

The average annual temperature in the South Pole area is 49.3 ° C, and a record low -89 ° C. Wind speed reaches 100 m / s.

The thick layer of fat and water-repellent feathers helps to maintain the heat of the penguins. Such a "suit" is reliably protected from blotting. In addition, the air between feathers allows you to keep warm both in water and on land.

During the pingguins, the penguins drop a large number of feathers and at this time are not able to swim in the water. They remain without food until new feathers grow.

A special blood circulation mechanism is saved from the freezing of Penguins's foot: hot arterial blood in the paws gives its heat to the oncoming flow of venous blood and is thus cooled. This effect is achieved due to the extraordinarily close mutual arrangement of the arteries and veins and is called the principle of reverse outflow.

The temperature of the steps of the Antarctic Penguin is usually about 4 ° C, which not only contributes to the maintenance of heat, but also allows you to move freely on ice. But the warm paws probably melt ice and squeezed into it.

Imperial penguins are going to dense groups to warm up. The temperature inside the group can reach +35 ° C at the ambient temperature of -20 ° C. So that everyone is in equal conditions, penguins are constantly moving from the center to the edge and back.

Penguins float, but do not fly

Penguin's body is perfect for swimming due to its shape, small wings resembling fins, and paws with membranes.

Some types of penguins also know how to dive to a depth of 200 meters.

How do penguins?

Of all the modern feathers, only penguins are moving "standing". Penguins can stand straight, because their refigble paws are located at the very end of the body.

The method of movement of penguins along loose snow is peculiar. In order not to fall when walking, penguins lay on the stomach and, repulscing the wings and legs from snow, slide on it at a speed of up to 25 km / h.

The largest penguins are imperial

The biggest petition of Penguin is the imperial penguin. The average individuals of this subspecies reach a height of about 114 centimeters and weigh 41 kilograms. The smallest subspecies is a small penguin, which is in height only 25 centimeters and weigh about 1.1 kilograms.

The largest of penguins, the imperial, walks through the snow and is resting on the snow, and deciding to swim, floats in water at a minus temperature.

Obviously, thick feathers serves as reliable protection against frost. But the paws are naked in Penguins. Are they not cold to stand cold? For example, some particularly thermal-loving people even in Thailand will help their legs in the sea with plus twenty degrees - and with a screech run away ...

Penguin paws A striking creation of nature. Compared to the paws of other birds, they are strongly shifted back, and therefore the gait from the penguin is quite human. This is, so to speak, an open bird. However, the non-standard layout of the paws need a penguin mainly in order to swim better. Among the marine inhabitants of the Penguin is one of the fastest swimmers, inferior only by the dolphin. In the water, the paws serve him with a wheel and brake.

When the pingguins appear, the mother and father in turn dive into the ocean and bring them food. According to the British Encyclopedia, the cooling potential of water in which they are immersed, equivalent to the effect of minus 20 degrees Celsius at wind speed 110 km / h. Antarctica is you not the coast of Thailand! We take into account that the Penguin usually dissects water at a speed of 16-32 km / h. Not the most greenhouse conditions. But the skin of the penguin is protected by a layer of air under the feathers, and only the paws directly come into contact with water. After the Penguin has gotten a meal, he returns to the family, sitting on a young to protect him from the cold, and escorts his wife who is sent for the next portion of Harche. Consequently, from the student of the water he stepped on the snow. Maybe a penguin instead of lap ice? It looks like that. Paws in penguins are really cooling up to very low temperatures - it was measured by her scientists. Whether Penguin's paws warmer, the birds would lose too much heat through their surface.

This low temperature ensures a unique blood circulation system, which penguins are endowed. Warm blood flows to the fingers of the paw on the arteries and immediately, the cooling, dries back on the veins, which pass in parallel to the arteries, side by side with them.

In short, heat exchange occurs between two opposing blood flows. As a result, a state of equilibrium is achieved: the paws are quite cold, so as not to waste heat, but the blood supply is normal, a preventing body from frostbite and damage to tissues. Penguin's paws consist mainly of strongly branched tendons. There are almost no muscle tissue in them, namely the muscles during freezing cause painful sensations.

However, there is another explanation. Penguin - Bird Proud: Rather, die than it becomes to complain about life.