1. Q: What Are Penguins?
A: Penguins (order Sphenisciformes, family Spheniscidae) are a group of pretty primitive, intelligent, aquatic, flightless birds living almost exclusively in the southern hemisphere, including in Antarctica. Most penguins are found in dry, tropical climates. Highly adapted for life in the oceans, penguins have counter-shaded dark and white plumage, and their wings have become flippers. Most penguins feed on krill, fish, octopus, squid, and other forms of sea-life caught while swimming underwater. They spend about half of their lives on land and half in the oceans.
2. Q: Where and When Did Penguins First Appear and Where Did They Come From?
A: There is little known about penguin evolution but PenguinOlogists think they first evolved sometime like more than 60 million years ago. They were placed in New Zealand.
3. Q: How Did Penguins Lose The Ability To Fly Or Were They Always Flightless?
A: Penguins never had the ability to fly. They were always flightless. They nor their ancestors, never flew.
4. Q: Are Penguins Smart or Dumb Birds?
A: Good question. Penguins are no where near dumb. Penguins are not supremely intelligent animals. They aren’t the smartest of all birds but they aren’t dumb either. They are pretty primitive birds and they aren’t very smart. What they lack in super smarts they make up for in unconditional love and affection. They are said to be the 4th smartest birds in the world.
5. Q: Why Do People Love Penguins So Much?
A: The reason why we love penguins is not because of all the penguin movies but rather because we form strong bonds with these unique and special creatures. We get a feel for them. We realize how sweet they are. It just makes you wonder what it would be like to be a penguin. When we work with penguins, we don't see them as animals but rather as our own children. We love them as much as we love our own pets. But when the time comes when people put our best friends to sleep, we weep really hard because we loved them so dearly. We would usually take time off work when the penguins died because we just lost our best friend. Penguins are our buddies and they are not afraid of us because they see us as bigger penguins, just like we see them as smaller humans.
6. Q: Why Are Penguins Called Penguins?
A: The etymology of the word "penguin" is highly disputed. The English word is not apparently of French, nor of Breton or Spanish origin (both attributed to the French word pingouin "auk"), but first appears in English or Dutch.
Some dictionaries suggest a derivation from Welsh pen "head" and gwyn "white", including the Oxford English Dictionary, the American Heritage Dictionary, the Century Dictionary and Merriam-Webster, on the basis that the name was originally applied to the great auk, which had white spots in front of its eyes (although its head was black).
An alternative etymology, found in a few English dictionaries, links the word to Latin pinguis "fat", from its perceived appearance. This etymology would be improbable if "penguin" were found to have been originally applied to the great auk, as some sources suggest.
A third theory states that the word is an alteration of “pen-wing”, with reference to the rudimentary wings of both great auks and penguins. This has been criticized for the unexplained nature of the alteration of the word.
7. Q: What Animal Does A Penguin Act Like?
A: Penguins act like cats because if they feel like doing something that's on their mind, they'll immediately do it! They apparently have a mind of their own and they are very stubborn birds. Although people seem to think of penguins as cuddly creatures, they are not really that cuddly. They have rough and prickly contour feathers. They are not always sweet either. They have cantankerous personalities and every little thing sets them off, meaning; they can be in a great mood one minute but if you or another penguin gets on their nerves, they become grumpy the next. They also have very strong personalities. Penguins are very graceful and agile in the water but they are clumsy on land. Just like cats, penguins are very sly and sneaky. In some aquariums, a penguin is sneaky enough to walk right out the door and away from it's exhibit if the door is open. Penguins love to steal nest material from their neighbors and are experts at it. Penguins are also very independent in the wild. They can easily care for themselves on their own. Penguins are also very curious birds. You will sometimes see a penguin walking right up to us and looking at us straight through our eyes. It's as if they are asking us "How do you do?" or Who are you?" Although penguins are birds, it's surprising to know that they have a mammal-like behavior.
8. Q: Do Penguins Have Feathers Or Fur?
A: Like all other birds, penguins DO in fact have feathers. But penguin feathers are very small and tightly packed together that overlap like shingles on a roof. Penguins are the only birds in the world that have more feathers on their bodies than any other bird. They have 40 to 80 per square inch of feathers. Their feathers are as small as the bristles on a tooth brush. Every year, penguins go through a process called a catastrophic molt. Penguins have to shed all four layers of their feathers at once because unlike most birds who molt a few feathers at a time, penguins need their feathers to stay warm and dry while feeding in the sea. It takes 3 or 4 weeks to shed every single feather on a penguin's body. The bigger the penguin, the longer it takes to molt. Although it may seem like penguins have fur, they really don't have fur. Penguins are NOT mammals. They are 100% bird.
9. Q: What Do Penguins Eat?
A: Penguins are powerful predators that hunt for small seafood in the ocean. They eat many kinds of different fish, squid, octopus, lobster, crab and krill. Penguins hunt by sight and by sound. Penguins usually feed in the cool dark water currents. That's where all their food is found. In deep dark water, penguins are aided with a type of hearing called echolocation to help them find, stun and catch their food. Penguins use echolocation just like dolphins.
10. Q: Are Penguins Almost Extinct?
A: Sadly, Yes. There are 18 penguin species and 14 out of the 18 kinds are either Threatened or Endangered. They are mainly vanishing because millions of penguins are starving and can't find enough fish to feed their selves or their chicks. What's happening is, Global Warming is making the seas warmer and that causes the fish to find colder water. So, penguins have to swim further and further away from their breeding grounds to find their food. Overfishing is also a major threat to penguins. People keep taking more and more fish out of the sea every day. People need to put a stop to Overfishing or the penguin population will plummet to dangerous rates.
11. Q: What Are The Names Of All The Penguin Species?
A: Emperor, King, Gentoo, Chinstrap, Adelie, Rockhopper, Macaroni, Erect Crested, Royal, Snares, Fjordland, Magellanic, African, Humboldt, Galapagos, Yellow Eyed, Little Blue and White Flippered! Those are ALL 18 penguin species!
12. Q: In Some Aquariums Around The World You Sometimes See Some Sick Matted Penguins! Why Are They Sick?
A: All penguins can get sick from time to time in zoos and aquariums but those penguins that you are seeing are not sick. They are just molting. Before penguins start to molt their warn out old feathers, they fatten themselves up to store food in their bellies. Then you start to see the feathers begin to seperate. Molting among penguins takes up to 3 or 4 weeks depending on the penguin breed. When molting begins, the feathers start to molt from the bottom of their body and making it's way up slowly to the top of their head. When penguins are finished molting, some fuzz is left ontop of their heads or around their necks and it almost looks like they are wearing a scarf or they have a mohowk. Penguins are very grumpy and fussy when they are molting because their feathers hurt and because they feel itchy. They barley move when they are in the molting process and they don't eat at all because they can't go to sea where they feed. They will freeze in the cold oceans because they don't have their over lapping feathers.
13. Q: What Is A Male, Female And Baby Called?
A: That's a pretty simple question. Male penguins are called cocks. Female penguins are called hens. And baby penguins are called chicks. Just like all other birds.
14. Q: Why Do Penguins Mate So Often? What's The Deal With That? Do They Mate For Any Other Purposes Other Than To Procreate?
A: The reason why you are seeing penguins mating so much is because they love to mate for fun. They do not just mate to procreate but we are starting to figure out that possibly they do it for the heck of it. It's fun to them to mate. Yes, there are other purposes for when they mate. When it's not even their mating season, you'll see penguins mating for the fun of it. Penguins mate purely for pleasure. And they are one of the few animals to mate for that reason. Other than dolphins and primates, penguins too mate for pleasure or for fun. It is possible for a penguin to experience an orgasm when they are mating. Because right at the climax of mating, the male penguin curls in his toes on his webbed feet and the female closes her eyes. I basically think most animals experience orgasms when they mate. And penguins are no different. Penguins are also known to rape one another. If a female is unwilling to mate with a male and if the male is willing, he will force her to mate with him. Male penguins never fail and they always seem to get their way with everything, including mating and forcing to mate with any female who they find appealing. Penguins also mate for strong pair bonding. When a couple of penguins are mating, they are strenghtining their bond with one another.
15. Q: What Is A Penguin's Beak Made Out Of And Does It Ever Stop Growing?
A: A penguin's beak is made out of kertin just like the substance of our own nails and hair. The beak never stops growing. It grows constantly through out a penguin's entire life.
16. Q: Like, Compared To Other Birds, How Smart Are Penguins?
A: Compared to other birds, penguins are not the smartest of all birds but they aren’t stupid either. Penguins can in fact recognize themselves in a mirror and they are self-aware to an extent. They have also been trained to paint art portraits while walking on art canvases with nontoxic paint on their webbed feet. They can be trained to do positive reinforcement training. That means the penguin keepers use things that the penguins love to reward them for doing a behavior when the penguin keepers ask. The same way you would give a dog a treat for sitting when you ask. For penguins, penguin keepers use fish, toys and sometimes pet them to reward them. They are trained to do all sorts of penguin behaviors such as; vocals on command, follow their trainer around, retrieve their lost toys in the water and on land, ball pass with their trainer, go into the water on command, come out of the water on command and they have been trained to pick up trash that people throw in their pin. They have also been trained to step on and off of a scale so the trainer can weigh the penguin. Trainers with penguins in zoos and aquariums around the world blow a whistle after a trained penguin does a behavior correctly. Then the penguin gets rewarded with a fish, a toy or being pet. Penguins absolutely love toys and love to play with toys. They love to play like cats and they play in a very similar manner like cats. Penguins are really playful animals and as they say, the more playful the animal, the more the intellect. Intelligent animals are playful. Penguins are also able to play soccer and tetherball with each other. Penguins have also been known to play certain games on iPads in zoos and aquariums for their own enrichment. At an aquarium in California called ‘Aquarium of the Pacific’ in 2015, a young male Magellanic penguin named Jeremy, started playing an app game called Game For Cats on a staff member’s iPad. But instead of using paws to touch the screen, he used his beak. Jeremy’s other penguin friend Newsom soon joined the game with him and Newsom set the penguin high score of 1,600 points for the game. Penguins are far more intelligent than people might realize at first glance. The penguin’s brain is the literal size of a standard table tennis ping pong ball, two utz cheese balls or a bit smaller than that depending on the species and they are said to be as intelligent and can reason as well as a 2 year old human toddler. Their cognition is compared to that of a 2 year old human toddler. The Emperor Penguins brain weighs 44.3 grams. Other penguin species brains weigh even lesser than 44.3 grams. The penguin is a wise creature. You see, once it loves you, it never leaves your side. A penguins’ love is pure. Penguins are very observant, inquisitive and adventurous and they react to everything around them very differently than you would expect in any other animal. They are smart in their own way as penguins go. They don’t have too much brain power because of how early and primitive of a bird they really are. They are pretty primitive birds and they aren’t very smart. They use all of their strong instincts more than their intellect. The reason why I say that they aren’t very smart is because when given a fake or dummy egg, they immediately incubate it instinctually thinking it’s the real thing. They even incubate rocks instinctually thinking that they are penguin eggs. There’s even been a case where penguin keepers put toys in the exhibit to give penguins enrichment and gave the penguins rubber duckies and the penguins wanted to incubate and care for the rubber duckies as their own babies. Their very strong urge to incubate and nurture anything that they see as their eggs and babies is just how they are. They often let their very strong instinctual emotional feelings overrule their logical thinking. Penguins’ cognition is a lot like the Golden Retrievers cognition of the bird world. What they lack in superior smarts, they make up for in unconditional love, affection and strong instinctual feelings. Penguins are the 4th smartest birds in the world.
17. Q: My Daughter And I Took A Penguin Encounter Today At SeaWorld And She Was Wondering What Was That Red Thing Under The Penguin's Tail And Why Was It There?
A: Oh, are you referring to blood on the penguin's tail? If you are not then that red thing must be his or her cloaca. The penguin’s cloaca is the single posterior opening for a penguin’s digestive, urinary, and reproductive tracts and is used to expel feces, eject sperm and lay eggs. If she was wondering why it was there, just tell her the penguin was over excited to see her and it was happy.
18. Q: How Do You Know When A Penguin Is Over Excited Or Extremely Happy To See You?
A: When a penguin is over excited or extremely happy to see you, it will expose it's cloaca in excitement. Or if the penguin was scared it will also expose it's cloaca
A: Penguins (order Sphenisciformes, family Spheniscidae) are a group of pretty primitive, intelligent, aquatic, flightless birds living almost exclusively in the southern hemisphere, including in Antarctica. Most penguins are found in dry, tropical climates. Highly adapted for life in the oceans, penguins have counter-shaded dark and white plumage, and their wings have become flippers. Most penguins feed on krill, fish, octopus, squid, and other forms of sea-life caught while swimming underwater. They spend about half of their lives on land and half in the oceans.
2. Q: Where and When Did Penguins First Appear and Where Did They Come From?
A: There is little known about penguin evolution but PenguinOlogists think they first evolved sometime like more than 60 million years ago. They were placed in New Zealand.
3. Q: How Did Penguins Lose The Ability To Fly Or Were They Always Flightless?
A: Penguins never had the ability to fly. They were always flightless. They nor their ancestors, never flew.
4. Q: Are Penguins Smart or Dumb Birds?
A: Good question. Penguins are no where near dumb. Penguins are not supremely intelligent animals. They aren’t the smartest of all birds but they aren’t dumb either. They are pretty primitive birds and they aren’t very smart. What they lack in super smarts they make up for in unconditional love and affection. They are said to be the 4th smartest birds in the world.
5. Q: Why Do People Love Penguins So Much?
A: The reason why we love penguins is not because of all the penguin movies but rather because we form strong bonds with these unique and special creatures. We get a feel for them. We realize how sweet they are. It just makes you wonder what it would be like to be a penguin. When we work with penguins, we don't see them as animals but rather as our own children. We love them as much as we love our own pets. But when the time comes when people put our best friends to sleep, we weep really hard because we loved them so dearly. We would usually take time off work when the penguins died because we just lost our best friend. Penguins are our buddies and they are not afraid of us because they see us as bigger penguins, just like we see them as smaller humans.
6. Q: Why Are Penguins Called Penguins?
A: The etymology of the word "penguin" is highly disputed. The English word is not apparently of French, nor of Breton or Spanish origin (both attributed to the French word pingouin "auk"), but first appears in English or Dutch.
Some dictionaries suggest a derivation from Welsh pen "head" and gwyn "white", including the Oxford English Dictionary, the American Heritage Dictionary, the Century Dictionary and Merriam-Webster, on the basis that the name was originally applied to the great auk, which had white spots in front of its eyes (although its head was black).
An alternative etymology, found in a few English dictionaries, links the word to Latin pinguis "fat", from its perceived appearance. This etymology would be improbable if "penguin" were found to have been originally applied to the great auk, as some sources suggest.
A third theory states that the word is an alteration of “pen-wing”, with reference to the rudimentary wings of both great auks and penguins. This has been criticized for the unexplained nature of the alteration of the word.
7. Q: What Animal Does A Penguin Act Like?
A: Penguins act like cats because if they feel like doing something that's on their mind, they'll immediately do it! They apparently have a mind of their own and they are very stubborn birds. Although people seem to think of penguins as cuddly creatures, they are not really that cuddly. They have rough and prickly contour feathers. They are not always sweet either. They have cantankerous personalities and every little thing sets them off, meaning; they can be in a great mood one minute but if you or another penguin gets on their nerves, they become grumpy the next. They also have very strong personalities. Penguins are very graceful and agile in the water but they are clumsy on land. Just like cats, penguins are very sly and sneaky. In some aquariums, a penguin is sneaky enough to walk right out the door and away from it's exhibit if the door is open. Penguins love to steal nest material from their neighbors and are experts at it. Penguins are also very independent in the wild. They can easily care for themselves on their own. Penguins are also very curious birds. You will sometimes see a penguin walking right up to us and looking at us straight through our eyes. It's as if they are asking us "How do you do?" or Who are you?" Although penguins are birds, it's surprising to know that they have a mammal-like behavior.
8. Q: Do Penguins Have Feathers Or Fur?
A: Like all other birds, penguins DO in fact have feathers. But penguin feathers are very small and tightly packed together that overlap like shingles on a roof. Penguins are the only birds in the world that have more feathers on their bodies than any other bird. They have 40 to 80 per square inch of feathers. Their feathers are as small as the bristles on a tooth brush. Every year, penguins go through a process called a catastrophic molt. Penguins have to shed all four layers of their feathers at once because unlike most birds who molt a few feathers at a time, penguins need their feathers to stay warm and dry while feeding in the sea. It takes 3 or 4 weeks to shed every single feather on a penguin's body. The bigger the penguin, the longer it takes to molt. Although it may seem like penguins have fur, they really don't have fur. Penguins are NOT mammals. They are 100% bird.
9. Q: What Do Penguins Eat?
A: Penguins are powerful predators that hunt for small seafood in the ocean. They eat many kinds of different fish, squid, octopus, lobster, crab and krill. Penguins hunt by sight and by sound. Penguins usually feed in the cool dark water currents. That's where all their food is found. In deep dark water, penguins are aided with a type of hearing called echolocation to help them find, stun and catch their food. Penguins use echolocation just like dolphins.
10. Q: Are Penguins Almost Extinct?
A: Sadly, Yes. There are 18 penguin species and 14 out of the 18 kinds are either Threatened or Endangered. They are mainly vanishing because millions of penguins are starving and can't find enough fish to feed their selves or their chicks. What's happening is, Global Warming is making the seas warmer and that causes the fish to find colder water. So, penguins have to swim further and further away from their breeding grounds to find their food. Overfishing is also a major threat to penguins. People keep taking more and more fish out of the sea every day. People need to put a stop to Overfishing or the penguin population will plummet to dangerous rates.
11. Q: What Are The Names Of All The Penguin Species?
A: Emperor, King, Gentoo, Chinstrap, Adelie, Rockhopper, Macaroni, Erect Crested, Royal, Snares, Fjordland, Magellanic, African, Humboldt, Galapagos, Yellow Eyed, Little Blue and White Flippered! Those are ALL 18 penguin species!
12. Q: In Some Aquariums Around The World You Sometimes See Some Sick Matted Penguins! Why Are They Sick?
A: All penguins can get sick from time to time in zoos and aquariums but those penguins that you are seeing are not sick. They are just molting. Before penguins start to molt their warn out old feathers, they fatten themselves up to store food in their bellies. Then you start to see the feathers begin to seperate. Molting among penguins takes up to 3 or 4 weeks depending on the penguin breed. When molting begins, the feathers start to molt from the bottom of their body and making it's way up slowly to the top of their head. When penguins are finished molting, some fuzz is left ontop of their heads or around their necks and it almost looks like they are wearing a scarf or they have a mohowk. Penguins are very grumpy and fussy when they are molting because their feathers hurt and because they feel itchy. They barley move when they are in the molting process and they don't eat at all because they can't go to sea where they feed. They will freeze in the cold oceans because they don't have their over lapping feathers.
13. Q: What Is A Male, Female And Baby Called?
A: That's a pretty simple question. Male penguins are called cocks. Female penguins are called hens. And baby penguins are called chicks. Just like all other birds.
14. Q: Why Do Penguins Mate So Often? What's The Deal With That? Do They Mate For Any Other Purposes Other Than To Procreate?
A: The reason why you are seeing penguins mating so much is because they love to mate for fun. They do not just mate to procreate but we are starting to figure out that possibly they do it for the heck of it. It's fun to them to mate. Yes, there are other purposes for when they mate. When it's not even their mating season, you'll see penguins mating for the fun of it. Penguins mate purely for pleasure. And they are one of the few animals to mate for that reason. Other than dolphins and primates, penguins too mate for pleasure or for fun. It is possible for a penguin to experience an orgasm when they are mating. Because right at the climax of mating, the male penguin curls in his toes on his webbed feet and the female closes her eyes. I basically think most animals experience orgasms when they mate. And penguins are no different. Penguins are also known to rape one another. If a female is unwilling to mate with a male and if the male is willing, he will force her to mate with him. Male penguins never fail and they always seem to get their way with everything, including mating and forcing to mate with any female who they find appealing. Penguins also mate for strong pair bonding. When a couple of penguins are mating, they are strenghtining their bond with one another.
15. Q: What Is A Penguin's Beak Made Out Of And Does It Ever Stop Growing?
A: A penguin's beak is made out of kertin just like the substance of our own nails and hair. The beak never stops growing. It grows constantly through out a penguin's entire life.
16. Q: Like, Compared To Other Birds, How Smart Are Penguins?
A: Compared to other birds, penguins are not the smartest of all birds but they aren’t stupid either. Penguins can in fact recognize themselves in a mirror and they are self-aware to an extent. They have also been trained to paint art portraits while walking on art canvases with nontoxic paint on their webbed feet. They can be trained to do positive reinforcement training. That means the penguin keepers use things that the penguins love to reward them for doing a behavior when the penguin keepers ask. The same way you would give a dog a treat for sitting when you ask. For penguins, penguin keepers use fish, toys and sometimes pet them to reward them. They are trained to do all sorts of penguin behaviors such as; vocals on command, follow their trainer around, retrieve their lost toys in the water and on land, ball pass with their trainer, go into the water on command, come out of the water on command and they have been trained to pick up trash that people throw in their pin. They have also been trained to step on and off of a scale so the trainer can weigh the penguin. Trainers with penguins in zoos and aquariums around the world blow a whistle after a trained penguin does a behavior correctly. Then the penguin gets rewarded with a fish, a toy or being pet. Penguins absolutely love toys and love to play with toys. They love to play like cats and they play in a very similar manner like cats. Penguins are really playful animals and as they say, the more playful the animal, the more the intellect. Intelligent animals are playful. Penguins are also able to play soccer and tetherball with each other. Penguins have also been known to play certain games on iPads in zoos and aquariums for their own enrichment. At an aquarium in California called ‘Aquarium of the Pacific’ in 2015, a young male Magellanic penguin named Jeremy, started playing an app game called Game For Cats on a staff member’s iPad. But instead of using paws to touch the screen, he used his beak. Jeremy’s other penguin friend Newsom soon joined the game with him and Newsom set the penguin high score of 1,600 points for the game. Penguins are far more intelligent than people might realize at first glance. The penguin’s brain is the literal size of a standard table tennis ping pong ball, two utz cheese balls or a bit smaller than that depending on the species and they are said to be as intelligent and can reason as well as a 2 year old human toddler. Their cognition is compared to that of a 2 year old human toddler. The Emperor Penguins brain weighs 44.3 grams. Other penguin species brains weigh even lesser than 44.3 grams. The penguin is a wise creature. You see, once it loves you, it never leaves your side. A penguins’ love is pure. Penguins are very observant, inquisitive and adventurous and they react to everything around them very differently than you would expect in any other animal. They are smart in their own way as penguins go. They don’t have too much brain power because of how early and primitive of a bird they really are. They are pretty primitive birds and they aren’t very smart. They use all of their strong instincts more than their intellect. The reason why I say that they aren’t very smart is because when given a fake or dummy egg, they immediately incubate it instinctually thinking it’s the real thing. They even incubate rocks instinctually thinking that they are penguin eggs. There’s even been a case where penguin keepers put toys in the exhibit to give penguins enrichment and gave the penguins rubber duckies and the penguins wanted to incubate and care for the rubber duckies as their own babies. Their very strong urge to incubate and nurture anything that they see as their eggs and babies is just how they are. They often let their very strong instinctual emotional feelings overrule their logical thinking. Penguins’ cognition is a lot like the Golden Retrievers cognition of the bird world. What they lack in superior smarts, they make up for in unconditional love, affection and strong instinctual feelings. Penguins are the 4th smartest birds in the world.
17. Q: My Daughter And I Took A Penguin Encounter Today At SeaWorld And She Was Wondering What Was That Red Thing Under The Penguin's Tail And Why Was It There?
A: Oh, are you referring to blood on the penguin's tail? If you are not then that red thing must be his or her cloaca. The penguin’s cloaca is the single posterior opening for a penguin’s digestive, urinary, and reproductive tracts and is used to expel feces, eject sperm and lay eggs. If she was wondering why it was there, just tell her the penguin was over excited to see her and it was happy.
18. Q: How Do You Know When A Penguin Is Over Excited Or Extremely Happy To See You?
A: When a penguin is over excited or extremely happy to see you, it will expose it's cloaca in excitement. Or if the penguin was scared it will also expose it's cloaca
