Penguins

At first glance, there isn’t much of a family resemblance between penguins and other birds. In fact, in many ways, penguins seem closer to fish! They are flightless, have flippers and spend more than half their time in the water. But despite their differences, they have the key features of birds such as feathers, no teeth and a beak. And while they may not fly in the air, when watching them swimming, it is like they fly through the water. Penguins flap their flippers just like wings to gain speed and shoot through the water due to their streamlined shape.

Penguins eat krill and fish – chasing their food means they have to be able to swim quickly and dive deep. The emperor penguin can dive to depths of 550 metres (that’s five rugby fields) in search of food, holding its breath for up to 20 minutes as it dives and swims. Even the smallest penguin – the little blue penguin, which we have in New Zealand – can dive to 60 metres and hold its breath for around 2 minutes. After this amazing breath-holding and swimming, penguins will then leap out of the water – the one time they look to be flying in the air – as they take a breath or aim for land.

Antarctica is home to a number of different species of penguin, each one unique.

Rights: Robyn Mundy, courtesy of the Australian Antarctic Division.

An emperor penguin huddle

By huddling together, emperor penguins use less energy and conserve their fat stores. They constantly gently change position from the outside to the inside, so no penguin is exposed to the bitter outer edge conditions for too long.

Emperor penguin

Standing around a metre tall, the emperor penguin deserves its name. These are the largest of the penguins – not just in Antarctica, but in the world. If you’ve seen the movie Happy Feet, it is the emperor penguins that sing, and this is how they learn to recognise each other – by learning the sound of their mate’s singing voice.

Happy Feet, the emperor penguin found at Peka Peka beach and cared for at Wellington Zoo, was transported to the Southern Ocean aboard the NIWA vessel Tangaroa and released on 4 September 2011. See the Happy Feet release video from NIWA.

Rights: Public domain

Penguin life cycle

A diagram showing the life cycle of emperor penguins, including the breeding cycle from May to December.

The chicks go through a guard stage in December and January, this is the time from hatching up to 4–6 weeks old. The post-guard stage is when the parents leave the nest unguarded. This stage is from 4–6 weeks in January and February.

Adelie penguin

Although the smallest of the Antarctic penguins, what they lack in size they make up in sheer volume – estimates of population size range from two to five million Adelies inhabiting Antarctica’s water edges. Although smaller than their emperor cousins, these penguins are still able to dive to depths of around 500 metres, although most feeding expeditions see them diving just a couple hundred metres.

Rights: NIWA

Adelie penguins

Adelie penguins on an ice floe. This photo was captured by scientists onboard the NIWA research vessel Tangaroa.

Macaroni penguin

With the look of a rock star, these penguins have bright yellow tassels, making them stand out in a crowd. And a crowd is what they are! Macaroni penguins are the most numerous of the world’s penguins, with an estimated 12 million pairs! These guys breed not just in Antarctica but also the sub-Antarctic islands. During the breeding season, two eggs are laid. The first is always undersized and once the second egg is laid, the original egg is kicked out of the nest and ignored. Despite numerous theories, no one has yet been able to work out why the first egg is ejected.

Rights: Jerzy Strzelecki, C.C 3.0

Macaroni penguins

Macaroni penguin (Eudyptes chrysolophus) in Antarctica. Macaroni penguins are the most numerous of the world’s penguins, with an estimated 12 million pairs.