A penguin is a seabird that does not fly : its wings are adapted for diving . This animal is characterized by its black and white plumage and walking upright.
Penguins are part of the palmiped group, since they have webbed fingers (joined together by a membrane ). It is precisely thanks to this particularity that they have a great swimming ability.
It should be noted that penguins are also sphenisciform . This is how flightless birds are classified whose wings are similar to fins, have a hydrodynamic body, have a short tail and only go to land to breed.
All penguins live in the southern hemisphere , with one exception: the Galapagos penguin . These specimens take advantage of the cold waters of the Cromwell Current and the Humboldt Current.
There are multiple species of penguins. The largest penguin is the emperor penguin , scientific name Aptenodytes forsteri , endemic to Antarctica and which can measure more than 1.20 meters in height. In addition to its size, its weight is also considerable since it can exceed 23 kilograms.
Its counterpart is the blue penguin , the smallest of the eighteen species that exist: its height is only around 40 centimeters and its weight is around one kilogram. It is hard to believe that within the same family of birds there are species so different from a physical point of view.
The Magellanic penguin ( Spheniscus magellanicus ), meanwhile, can be found in Argentina , Chile , Uruguay and Brazil , depending on the season . Among the crested penguins , on the other hand, we can find the rockhopper penguin ( Eudyptes chrysocome ) and the rockhopper or macaroni penguin ( Eudyptes chrysolophus ).
Given its peculiar appearance and the fact that it walks on two legs, the penguin is one of the animals that arouses the most interest in people. It is a kind of fascination that since ancient times has led various artists from various fields to create characters based on them or even to take them as a source of inspiration for the design of certain clothing items or ways of moving in the field of a comedy.
But the penguin hides many more peculiarities besides its appearance and its walk. Below we will see some of them:
* they can drink sea water , unlike us and other land animals such as dogs, which can suffer from dehydration if we do so given the excess salt it contains;
* With few exceptions, the penguin is a monogamous animal for life, meaning that once it finds its soul mate it remains with it until the end of its days;
* If a penguin loses an egg, sometimes it approaches a foreign nest with the intention of stealing another one. Anyway, this devious plan almost never works because the parents are usually very close to the offspring at all times;
* Continuing with the theme of children, penguin families usually organize themselves in such a way that the male stays hatching the eggs while the female goes out to find food for everyone;
* As mentioned above, of all the known penguin species, only one of them does not live in the southern hemisphere. This means that most must endure intense cold, and to do so they have several layers of fat and feathers that allow them to maintain a body temperature of almost 40 degrees Celsius.
The Penguin , finally, is a fictional villain who confronts Batman . He first appeared in a 1941 comic strip and was later included in TV series and movies starring Batman.