They Love Ice
Emperor Penguins, the wild ones, only prefer to live in Antarctica. Their young ones are raised on floating ice platforms which is a frozen oceans connected to any land. From birth to death they only live around Antarctica’s icy environment. Very rarely a drifter can be seen near the coast of New Zealand.
Biggest Of Their Species
There are a total of 18 species of penguins found on Earth today, and emperor penguins are the biggest of them all. Even they are counted under the list of one of the largest birds among all. Being 120cm tall and 40 kgs in weight, which varies crazily throughout the year, they are called the penguin giants.
How Many Emperor Penguins?
Around 595,000 emperor penguins are living in Antarctica. They are needed to be protected and there is so much that no one knows about them. Lack of research and resources are putting these polar creatures in danger.
Unvisited Colonies
A British survey was conducted in 2012 in which satellite tech was utilised to discover the emperor penguin colonies. So they are counted from space and guess what, 54 colonies of them were noticed out of which half of them were untouched and only discovered by the satellite. They followed the breeding sites to discover and count them.
Males Incubate Eggs
Emperor penguins incubate their eggs during the freezing winter months. They impress the females and breed, in June or May females lay one egg. The egg is passed on to the males to incubate, after which females spend their nine months in the ocean for feeding.
Emperors Can Survive -50° C
Emperors have evolved differently, they can withstand even the harshest freezing climate on Earth which includes -50°C temperature and 200 Km/hr winds. They are designed by nature with small beaks, two layers of feathers and small flippers (smaller than other penguins) to prevent heat loss.
Olympic Divers
Emperors are the best divers among all the birds, they have the record for the deepest dive of 564 m which is equivalent to twice the height of the Shard, the tallest building in Europe. They can remarkably hold their breaths underwater and the longest was recorded at 28 minutes.
Also read:
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Favourite Food
Emperors prefer Antarctica’s silverfish as their favourite food and also like krill, squid and other fishes. An average adult can have 2-3 kgs per day and even more when required in extreme winters and feeding their kids.
Survivors
Male penguins while waiting for their females do not eat and still be alive for 4 months. From the start of breeding, and hatching of eggs to the returning of the mother from the ocean they can bear hunger. In the process, they lose about half of their body weight.
Knows No Limits
They can climb up on the steep ice cliffs and can breed on Ice shelves, they don’t have limits. Many scientists have discovered their colonies on ice shelves if the ground ice breaks or fails.
