• The IUCN World Conservation Union recognizes 18 species of penguins, 11 of which are threatened with extinction.

• Among today’s penguins, the largest is the emperor (43 inches), which stands taller than a Great Dane. The smallest, the little, or little blue (13 to 15 inches), is similar in height to a beagle.

Related Reading: Penguins 101: Nature's Fanciest Seabirds

• Penguins are able to drink ocean water thanks to a specialized gland that filters surplus salt from the bloodstream. Any excess salt is excreted from the nose.

• Many air-breathing, deep-diving marine animals have special adaptations to counteract the dangers of decompression illness. Penguins deal with it by coming up from dives at an oblique angle, which slows their ascent.

• Genetic evidence indicates that penguins are most closely related to albatrosses and petrels.

• A layer of air remains trapped in the plumage during dives to assist in insulation and buoyancy.

• The iconic black-and-white coloration of penguins is a form of camouflage known as countershading. From beneath, the white belly obscures the bird from visual predators looking up toward the bright surface waters. The black back is similarly effective against the dark ocean waters below.

• Penguins’ fastest terrestrial mode of transportation is tobogganing, wherein they skid along the snow on their belly and use their feet for propulsion.

• A male emperor penguin fasts for 120 days in the Antarctic winter while incubating a single egg. Once the female returns to relieve him, he might have to walk more than 60 miles to reach the ocean across the expanded ice.

• The word penguin was originally used as another name for the great auk, a large, flightless North Atlantic sea bird that was hunted to extinction around 1852. When explorers first saw the birds we now know as penguins, they gave them the same name due to their superficial similarity.

• There are no penguins in the northern hemisphere with the exception of the Galapagos penguin, whose distribution only just edges across the equator.

• The earliest penguin fossils date from the late Cretaceous period, when dinosaurs would have still roamed the earth.

• One extinct penguin was equally as tall (6’5”) and heavy (214 pounds) as Chris Hemsworth, who plays Thor in the Marvel movie series.

Related Reading: Patagonia Dreams: Up Close With Puerto Madryn’s Eclectic Marine Life

• In 2008, a new penguin species was discovered in New Zealand based on DNA analysis of some remains; sadly the first Polynesian settlers had wiped it out 500-700 years before.

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