Royal Penguin (Lat. AptenodyTes Patagonicus) a bird from the Penguin family, which, like the rest of the individuals of the family, cannot fly. Outwardly, it is very similar to the imperial appearance, but smaller in size and slightly brighter in its color, due to which it is possible to distinguish it, but this is quite problematic for an ordinary person who does not have due knowledge.
Appearance
Royal Penguins have a rather large size compared to other species, but lose the largest representatives of the family imperial. They have a streamlined body shape and feathers that have waterrepellent properties, thereby allowing the animal to slide on the ice. A thick fat layer is also hidden under them, which helps when swimming in cold water and warms in harsh cold. In addition, a large amount of fat can allow Penguin not to eat for a long time, for example, during migration.
Their spine has practically no bends, and also does not differ in mobility. The only part of the body that the penguin can rotate separately from the body. The color of the belly is gray or white, and the back, tail, paws and external plumage of wings are black. Scientists still cannot understand the benefit, but representatives of this species always have an orange spot on the sides of the head and in the center of the chest.
Males are a little larger in size than females, but basically it is impossible to notice these differences.
Lifestyle and behavior
It is the royal penguins among all other birds the longest time of reproduction: by its duration, it can reach sixteen months. Animals try to produce offspring annually, but they cannot do it and most often they have to wait about a year and a half before the appearance of the next generation. This species prefers to nest in small colonies on the rocks or in the mountains.
To find a female, a male, ready to mate, goes in search and swings his head, thereby showing orange spots on his head. It is they who testify to all other members of the family about puberty of the male and females draw their attention to him. Often it happens when an animal raises the beak up and screams for an effect, but often this provokes not only female individuals, but also other males, which is why they begin a whole fierce fight. The wings are used as weapons with which the penguins beat each other. When the female finally decided, a beautiful dance begins between the couple, symbolizing their imminent mating. Birds touch each other with beaks, put their heads on the shoulder and from the side there is a feeling that they are literally hugged.
Where they live
Penguins settled in even areas with thick layers of snow during winter. For the settlement, they do not choose rocks and go to them exclusively during mating. Such selectivity lies in the inability of the royal penguins to maneuverable movements due to the structure of the body and mass. But even given this fact, representatives of this species move much faster than their closest brothers imperial.
For a good life, these animals need a place next to which there will be a way to any large reservoir, whether it be a sea, a lake or ocean. It is there that all the food is mined, because in no way it simply cannot be found. Birds also try to settle in large flocks, because during the wind they can become tight to each other and warm everyone.
What they eat
For full life, penguins need to use a large amount of drinking water every day, otherwise they will not be able to heat themselves and will soon die. They produce it with the help of the heat of their own body and snow, but in extreme cases they can drink ordinary salty water. To avoid the consequences, nature has provided for this special glands that are located near the eyes and help to purify water from salt. Thus, all salt turns into a certain solution and in the future the bird simply deals it.
This type of hunting occurs seasonally, like the imperial. Usually some part of males and females go to search for food, and the other remains in the settlement, guarding and bearing offspring. The duration of one hunting can reach three weeks, and after the animal returns with many extracted fish and feeds not only itself, but also other family members. In addition, all the power and maneuverability of the penguins manifests itself precisely in the water, and with the help of their long beak they are able to get fish from the deepest and narrowest crevices. If there is no access to the reservoir, then birds have to use other living creatures, catching it from the Nor. All this makes penguins rather dangerous predators, despite their cute appearance.
Reproduction
The penguins have no habit of building nests, since they simply do not need this, because the birds migrate throughout their lives. As a place for laying eggs, they try to choose snowy areas of the area on which there is no ice. The process of deposit also looks pretty entertaining: the female puts the egg at her feet and falls on it, covering it with the stomach. For 55 days, the egg is in this position, and every two to three weeks it moves to the male and back. The eggs are deposited between the January and December, and one female hatches only one egg.
A feature of the royal penguins is also the fact that the chicks from the November or December clutches survive for a greater extent, because later they hatch in winter and can easily die from climatic conditions. When this happens, the couple understands that they need to conceive the next chick earlier, thereby they learn from their mistakes. In order for the chick to survive, one of the parents goes to search for food, and the other warms it with his own body, until he learned to herself warm himself on his own.
Natural enemies
Since these birds are animals that live mainly in isolated territory, adults do not have natural enemies on land. But very often some predators that a person, for example, dogs or cats, are making a serious danger even for an adult penguin. But the kids more often die from attacks by other birds, such as Petrels.
The biggest danger to any penguin is the underwater area in which they feed on. Since there is a whole hierarchy in the water, sea birds are only an intermediate part in the food chain and they are often eaten by sea lions, leopards and even cats. Rimps that are not even for the purpose of food, but just funny for the sake of attacking all marine inhabitants, are very great for the whole flock, terrorizing them. Even sharks can attack a penguin if they see him with their competitor in pursuit of food. Thus, despite the complete safety on land, the bird dies in the water. And due to the fact that couples bear the offspring in turn, having lost one of the family members of the other, too, goes to death, leaving his baby or egg to eat.
Population
Throughout history, the royal penguins were commercial birds and people were destroyed without any mercy, even though there was no more important importance or need for a person at that time. Once again, when the population was practically reduced to zero, people thought of taking measures to protect these animals, and this happened only in 1918. Due to the fact that many hunters were lovers of exotic and contained couples in captivity, the population was able to return to normal and began to count about 5 million individuals.
The chick of the royal penguin
Although the royal penguins have no threat of extinction at the moment, the melting of ice still leads to death and now the population has been reduced by 70 percent. Reducing feed also affects the number of individuals, and global warming can completely destroy the entire population by the end of this century. Since these birds prefer fish as food, any fishing crafts near their habitat should be prohibited. After all, the disappearance of the penguins will suffer the destruction of many other species, for example, kimber that feed on these birds.
