Penguins species with photos and names, description, appearance, breed | Varieties of penguins

Penguins are nonlethal birds, their bodies streamlined, animals live in the southern regions of the Earth. Many people represent Penguin as a small black and white creature, but in fact these birds are of different sizes, and some penguins are colorful.

The smallest look is small penguin. These birds grow to 25.4-30.48 cm in height and weigh only 0.90-1.36 kg. The largest penguin is imperial. Grows to 111.76 cm in height and weighs from 27.21 to 40.82 kg.

Varieties of penguins

Imperial

The world’s largest type of penguins. He has a gray back, a white stomach and orange marks behind the eyes and on the upper chest.

Royal

The second largest penguin in the world. Adults are about 90 cm in height and weigh about 15-16 kg. Bright orange spots near the ears have the shape of drops of tears. Penguins are found in many Subantarctic island areas in the region of 45 ° south latitude. This species does not migrate and passes hundreds of kilometers from breeding places to search for food.

Crested

The upper body and throat at the penguin is black, the chest and stomach are white, golden crests on the sides of the head behind the eyes. Khokhlaty penguins eat various types of sea flora and fauna, from Kril to fish and squid. In winter they move to the north, but remain not far from the sea.

Goldhaired

He has a convex red beak and eyes, orange feathers around his eyes, contrasting with a black head and back, white lower body parts and bright red paws. This is a Pelagic and migrating look and occurs near sushi only with propagation. It feeds on crustaceans at sea, dives to a depth of 80 m, when feeding at night it remains closer to the surface.

Chubly

This is the smallest type of crested penguins. Individuals black tops and white from below, the head and throat are black, bright yellow feathers in the form of a crest above the eyes. The beak of orange-brown color, the eyes of dark red-brown. The view in the colonies that consist of several thousand pairs nest. Feeds into the sea in small and medium herds.

Northern crested

The eyes are red, the lower parts of the body are white and the top is grayish-gray; A straight, bright yellow eyebrow ends with long yellow feathers behind the eyes; Black feathers on the top of the head.

Thickcircuit

Adults have:

They have a kind of gait, they put their neck and head forward, maintain balance, holding the fins of Blzko to the body.

Snar crested

A mediumsized penguin with a black back, head and throat, white lower body. Strong orange beak on the head outlines bright pink skin around its base. Thin yellow stripes of eyebrows begin near the nostrils and reach the crests behind red-brown eyes. In Anfas, two ridges form the letter “V”.

Penguin Schlegel

Mediumsized penguins and a little larger than other crested species. Their heads are from white to pale gray color. Yellow feathers on their heads converge on the forehead. For the full development of ridges, it takes several years.

Large crested

The species is determined by vertical yellow feathers of the crests. The penguins have a clearly expressed throat bag, parts of the beak are parallel to each other, the yellow supercilia is attached to the beak higher than that of other crested penguins.

Small

The smallest type of penguins. The back is from blue to dark blue, sometimes with a greenish tint, white lower parts of the body. Dark blue color on the head spreads just below the eyes. Birds from the Banks and Northern Kenterbury Peninsula have the most pale backs, have wider white edges on the front and rear edges of the dorsal surface of the fins and they have more white heads and cereals.

In front of the annual molting, the dorsal surfaces are pale brown. A strong, hooked beak dark gray, rainbow shell blue-gray or nut, legs and feet are not quite white with dark soles.

Yelloweyed

A tall, overweight penguin with a characteristic pale yellow strip without feathers passing through the back of the head and around the eye. The front crown, chin and cheeks are black with yellow nettles, the side parts of the head and the front of the neck are light brown, the back and tail are blue. Chest, stomach, front of the hips and lower part of the fins are white. Red-brown or pale cream beak long and relatively thin. Eyes are yellow, pink paws dorsal and black-brown ventral.

Adelie

Medium-sized black and white penguins, they have a black head and chin, a characteristic white ring around the eyes and a relatively long tail, most of the beak is covered with plumage.

Antarctic

Mediumsized penguin, black from above and white from below, with white feathers above the eyes. The narrow black strip passes diagonally from ear to ear under the chin. The beak and eyes are black, pink paws with a black sole.

Subantarctic

Large penguin with a white triangle above each eye, they are connected by a thin white stripe above the back crown, rare white feathers grow in other places of a dark head. The rest of the head, neck and back are dark gray, the beaks and paws of bright orange. Their long tail dangles from side to side when walking.

Spectacled

The plumage covering the chin and back, black, most of the plumage of the chest is white. Penguins also have prominent C-shaped areas of white feathers on both sides of the head.

Penguin Humboldt

A medium-sized penguin with a black-gray upper body, white bottom of the body. He has a black chest strip and a black head with white stripes, they go from the eyes and connect under the chin. The beak is mostly black, light pink at the base.

Magellanov

A mediumsized penguin with a thick black stripe on the neck, wide white eyebrows and pink flesh at the base of the beak.

Galapagos

The plumage covering the chin and back, black, most of the plumage of the chest is white. C-shaped strips of white feathers on the sides of the head are thin.

The nature of behavior and lifestyle

Penguins spend almost all their time in the water, because they are born swimmers. These birds are able to dive to a depth of 3 to 100 m and overcome about 1000 km. But, if suddenly Penguin has any things on land, he just lies on the belly and rolls on the ice to the right place. Using such an unusual way of moving, penguins can reach a speed of 7 km/h.

Basically, all the time on land, they communicate with each other, because these nonlethal birds and live in colonies. The number of colony can vary from hundreds to thousands and even millions of individuals. 10 million individuals live in the largest colony. Such huge groups of penguins are observed in Antarctica.

If we talk about the structure of society, these animals have matriarchy. The female herself chooses the male and begins to achieve his location. After the birth of the baby, she goes in search of food when the male looks after the cub. At the same time, the couple is sipked from the rest during the marriage and laying of eggs and comes to the colony with a hatching chick.

How many penguins live

The life expectancy of a penguin depends on the diversity and wealth of the feed base, which is available to it, on the number of natural enemies in the environment and from climatic conditions. Despite the harsh conditions, the birds inhabiting Antarctica live an average of 25 years. Although the lion’s share of individuals does not live up to a year of life because of the attacks of predators. The rest of the species do not have time to live up to 20 due to a food shortage. In captivity, many penguins live much more about 30 or more years. This is due to an excellent feed base and the absence of enemies.

Where they live

It is believed that penguins inhabit only Antarctica. However, most species live in temperate and tropical latitudes, inhabiting open water spaces of the southern hemisphere. The habitat of these nonlethal birds extends from the Antarctic and the southern coast of Australia to Peru and the Galapogos Islands. The island data are located in close proximity to the equator.

However, the penguins still prefer cold and appear in such tropical latitudes with cold movements. Although this remark is more related to males. They get to these places with the help of Bengel or the course of Humboldt. The first occurs in m. Good hope, and the second in South America. Both lead birds to the shores of Africa.

But, despite this, the largest population inhabit Antarctica.  She is a house for 2 million pairs. However, only 2 out of 18 species live in Antarctica: Adeli’s penguin and imperial.

What they eat

Penguin diet consists of fish. They love kril, squid, octopus, plankton, oysters. Favorite delicacy are also anchovies with sardines. Penguins can also catch representatives of the cephalopods. In general, they are illegible in terms of choosing a victim. They usually eat prey, being in the depths.

Among these birds there are those who eat only crustaceans. Such species need to go out “hunting” daily, but these individuals do it quite efficiently they take 6 seconds to catch one crustacean. The remaining representatives of this kind do not need to do this so often, it is enough once every few days to go out in search of food.

During molting, and some representatives of the genus and during the period of trunks refuse to eat food. This period takes from 1 month to 3. The longest “hunger strike” occurs in imperial penguins. As a result, birds lose about 3-4 kg, they take energy from fat reserves.

These birds drink sea water. Excess salt is released through special glands that are above the eyes of the penguins.

Natural enemies

The danger to the penguins living in the north is represented by all predators that inhabit the depths. Among them are both sea leopards and sea otter with killer whales. These inhabitants of the waters most often attack adults. But the enemies are waiting in the air: shirts, petrels and rust and albatrosses constantly track down the next victim. They are dangerous only for young animals. So, a third of the cubs becomes part of the dinner of predators. To protect themselves, the cubs gather in small groups under the auspices of old females. After all, the easiest way to attack a single baby than such “nursery”.

Sea leopard a natural enemy of the penguins

Penguins inhabiting tropical latitudes also everywhere awaiting danger. For the Penguins of Tasmania, and in the past, Australia is a serious threat to the Tasman Devil a representative of marsupials. When this animal was only brought to Australia, it exterminated more than 3 thousand penguins almost immediately. For other representatives of the genus foxes, wild cats, rats and affection. Sometimes they are attacked by dogs, some types of lizards.

Propagation and offspring

The propagation season usually starts in spring and summer. But there is a form whose representatives are capable of producing offspring every season Galapagos penguins.

Penguin reaches puberty at the age of 2-8 years. On average, penguins are ready to create a couple at 3 years old. Despite the fact that penguins are considered monogamous animals, the percentage of “divorces” is quite large and is on average more than 80%. In many ways, the duration of relations depends on the state of health of the offspring last year.

Когда самцы, не являющиеся оседлыми, прибывают к местам размножения и начинают «трубить», туда приходят и самки. It is important to note that the male individual takes place on the coast in advance. After choosing a partner, future parents begin to prepare a nest. Usually it is located in the crevice of the rocks. The bottom is covered with thick grass and twigs.

The masonry creation period takes from 2 to 5 days. At a time, the female is able to demolish 3 eggs. But often only one, the very first chick survive. It hatches before everyone else and is the strongest. The male hatches offspring from 30 to 100 days, depending on the type. After that, the chick is hatching. The next few weeks the baby is on land under the strict observation of the male. It is fed about once every two days, the amount of food varies from 1 to 500 g. Young animals eat only crustaceans. A couple of months after the birth, the cub is determined in the “nursery”. There he is 2-3 months, after which he mfates and goes to the sea, forever losing touch with relatives.

Population and status of the species

To date, there are 18 types of penguins, 11 of them awaits an early extinction. The threat to the colonies of these birds is global warming. Earth temperature rises along with the temperature of the water, which causes melting glaciers. So the habitats of birds are destroyed. This affects the diet: the number of most crustaceans and mollusks is reduced. But the change in the population of these inhabitants of the seas is also due to mass capture, which is produced by people.

However, this is not the only serious danger. In the modern world, poaching is also flourishing: Penguin fat is still valued and is considered a cure for all diseases in some peoples.

Another factor affecting the number of birds is oil spills in the oceans. Both young and adults suffer greatly from this.

But the list of factors affecting the number does not end there. Extreme tourism is quite popular today. Because of it, Antarctica is contaminated with plastic and food waste. And communication with people contributes to the appearance of stress in birds.