Penguins

**__ By: Alex __** Penguins are active, entertaining and an interesting “bird”. Some people don’t understand the fight penguins are going through to survive with the basics of life. People probably don’t think of penguins as birds, but they are. Unlike regular birds, penguins don’t fly. They have the ability to swim and tolerate very cold temperatures. They can do this because they have blubber and oily feathers that can repel water. There are three types of penguins: the Emperor Penguins, the King Penguins, and the Adelie Penguins. The three different penguins all live around the area of Antarctica. The Emperor Penguins lives in the Antarctica, which is the coldest part of the world. The King Penguins lives in the sub-Antarctic and Antarctica Islands. Adelie Penguins live in Antarctica and its islands. All species of penguins have the same life cycle. They do, however, have different mating seasons. During mating season they have at least 1 or 2 eggs, depending on their type. After about 3 months, mating season comes to an end. The mother of the egg sets off on her journey to find food, and while she is gone, the male penguin is left with the egg. He keeps it warm and protects it during the time the female is away. He stays with the egg until the mother returns with food. By the time she returns, the egg should have hatched. The mother penguin feeds the baby penguin with the food she has stored in her stomach on the long trip home. The baby puts its head into the mother’s mouth, and she vomits the food back up into the chick’s mouth. Eventually, the baby chick will learn to take care of itself and will grow to become an average adult sized penguin. All penguins prey upon fish. Some eat pacific types of fish. Emperor Penguins eat krill and squid. King penguins prey mainly on lantern fish and some squid. The Adelie mainly prey on krill with some squid and fish. The total population of these three penguins amount is 9,400,000. The Emperor Penguins are the largest penguins but are the smallest in population at 400,000 pairs. The King Penguins population is over 4,000,000 pairs. The Adelie Penguins, one of the smallest penguins, has the largest population at over 5,000,000. By researching penguins many things can be learned about them. There are many different species of penguins. The Emperor Penguin, the King Penguin, and the Adelie Penguin are all alike in many ways. They are all birds that cannot fly. Also, they can all swim like fish because of the way their bodies are made. They are all extremely protective of their young and are very loyal and loving creatures. One of the biggest differences between them is their population ad their height. The individual body size of each penguin is quite a bit different. There is also a difference in the size of each of their populations.
 * __ Penguins __**