Commonly asked questions for Dr Penguin
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Are penguins a type of fish or mammal?
Penguins are actually birds: they have feathers and lay eggs that must be incubated, which are defining charcateristics of birds. The fossil and genetic evidence shows that they are descended from flying birds.
Do penguins live with polar bears?
Despite cartoonists doing their best to propogate this fallacy, penguins and polar bears live on opposite sides of the globe. Penguins are found only in the Southern Hemisphere and Polar Bears live only in the Northern Hemisphere.
How do penguins stay warm?
While penguins do have a layer of fat that helps with insulation, most of their insulation comes from their feathers. The feathers lock together trapping a layer of air next to the skin providing protection from the cold in ways not dissimilar to double glazing or a diver's dry suit.
Do penguins only live on snow and ice?
No. While it is true that the suit of feathers that allows penguins to spend long periods immersed in water also allows them to exploit extremely cold places on land, such as the Antarctic, penguins can also be found breeding as far north as the equator (the Galapagos Islands) and living on the edge of deserts such as those in Peru and Chile.
Are penguins and auks related?
Auks belong to the bird family Alcidae, which is a completely separate family from that of penguins (Spheniscidae). Auks are found in the Northern Hemisphere and are often cited as the Northern Hemisphere's equivalent of penguins because they share common lifestyles and, despite the fact that living auks all fly, they are quite similar to penguins to look at. However, such superficial resemblances are the result of convergent evolution not descent from a common ancestor. That is, the evolutionary process of natural selection can produce similar designs when animals occupy similar lifestyles (or ecological niches as the scientists like to call them).
Do penguins mate for life?
This is often said of virtually all monogamous seabirds, let alone penguins. But recent research has shown that penguins often "divorce" even where both partners survive until the next breeding attempt. The divorce rate varies from species to species and even location to location. Ironically, given the huge success of the documentary March of the Penguins and its portrayal of love in Emperor Penguins, the least faithful of all penguins are the Emperors with the vast majority of pairs "divorcing" from one year to the next.