There are about 18 varieties of penguins, and each one is unique. One lives where there is ice and snow, and the other lives in hot latitudes, having its own characteristics. One is very tiny, weighing no more than a kilogram, and the other is a real giant weighing 40 kg and growing more than a meter. The characters and preferences of these birds are also quite different. Prostozoo lifts the curtain on the diversity of penguin species.

blue penguin

The blue penguin is also called the small penguin, because it is the smallest and, in combination, one of the most numerous. It is also called the elf penguin, possibly because of the blue tint on its back. Little penguins have chosen their habitat New Zealand and the coast of South Australia.

The growth of this penguin fluctuates within 40 centimeters. The baby weighs about one kilogram. Little penguins build their nests in caves or crevices. They are fond of organizing penguin parades: coming out of the water at sunset, small penguins form groups of 10-40 pieces and march in formation to their nests, shouting to their relatives and children. Blue penguins are very loyal - with the chosen partner, they can stay together for the rest of their lives.

It is also called the northern little penguin, as it is the best-known subspecies of the little penguin. It differs from other species in white stripes at both ends of the wings.

White-winged penguins live in the Canterbury region of New Zealand. They are mostly active at night, unlike other penguin species. They all go out to hunt together, but only when it gets completely dark. In search of food, they can swim away from the coast at a distance of up to 75 kilometers.

Source: nzbirdsonline.org.nz

crested penguin

Also rock, rock, or rockhopper penguin. This is a "cliff jumping penguin", because his favorite way to enter the water is to jump into it from a cliff "soldier", while other penguins prefer to dive.

This proud handsome man lives on most of the islands temperate zone Southern Ocean. Its head is adorned with beautiful yellow feathers. But the temper of the stone penguin is scandalous - if you make him angry, he will make a loud noise and even attack.

Source: www.megasite.ucoz.es

This is the most famous and unique type of penguin in color. It got its name in honor of the wife of the explorer Dumont-Durville.

The Adélie penguin builds its nest from pebbles that it can steal from careless neighbors. Settles on the coast of Antarctica and nearby islands.

In winter, Adélie penguins live on floating ice floes 700 kilometers from the coast, and in the polar summer they nest on islands near Antarctica. At the beginning of nesting, the air temperature can reach -40°C.

Source: http://penguins2009.narod.ru/

Antarctic or south polar penguin

A relative of the Adélie penguins. Very few in comparison with other species - the number of individuals reaches 7.5 thousand pairs. A distinctive feature of the Antarctic penguin is a black stripe along the neck from ear to ear and a black cap on the head.

They are wonderful swimmers, diving to a depth of 250 meters, and also swim 1000 kilometers into the sea. Habitat - Antarctic and subantarctic islands.

Source: http://pingvins.com/

Galapagos penguin

A distinctive feature of the Galapagos penguins is their habitat. And they live on the warm Galapagos Islands, where the air temperature reaches 28 ° C, and the water reaches 24 ° C. This is the only penguin species found in the tropics.

These penguins have a black head, and go from eye to eye down the neck. white stripe. The underside of the beak and the skin around the eyes are pink-yellow. There are very few Galapagos penguins - about 6,000 pairs. Unlike other species, this penguin has many enemies due to its small stature and habitat.

Source: http://www.awaytravel.ru/

The golden-haired or golden-haired penguin is similar to the crested penguin, but the golden-haired yellow feathers on its head are larger. English title of this species is translated as penguin-dandy. Their habitat is very extensive and has about 200 places.

Interestingly, the body weight of an adult penguin almost doubles in different time year and depending on the periods of molting and breeding. Colonies of the golden-haired penguin are really huge - up to 2.5 million birds. This is the most numerous species - more than 11.5 million pairs.

Penguins (Spheniscidae) belong to the flightless family sea ​​birds, this is the only family in the penguin order. It has 18 species, all of them are beautiful and unusual in their own way. For example, the crested penguin of Antarctica is truly a miracle created by nature. After all, nature is the most talented sculptor and artist who breathes life into his creations!

Great crested penguin (Fudyptes sclateri) - very interesting creature. The name "penguin" comes from the Welsh pen, which means "head", and from the word "gwin", which means "white". Adding these two words, we get "penguin", for sweetness the letter "e" was changed to "i". Although there is another version of the origin of this name. The sailors nicknamed the funny tumblers the word "pinguis", translated from Latin - "fat". Such a nickname is quite consistent with their physique.

Crested penguin: description

These clumsy creatures are relatively small in size. The body length of a penguin is on average 60-65 cm, the weight of birds is about 2.5-3.5 kg. But it should be noted that before molting fat women gain much more, it happens that up to 6.5-7 kg. Males can be visually, even from a distance, distinguished from females by a much larger size.

The head, upper throat and cheeks of penguins are black. Two yellowish tufts of feathers, starting from the nostrils, stretch through the dark red eyes and run back along the crown. Thanks to the tufts they are called " crested penguins", these beauties differ from other species in the ability to move their feather decoration. The top of the body is black in color, casts blue, the bottom is contrastingly white. The wings-fins are bluish-black with a white border around the edges. The beak is thin and rather long, brownish in color, closer to orange.

Where do large crested penguins live in nature?

Cute crested penguins are found in nature near New Zealand and Australia. They prefer to arrange their nests on Antipodes, Auckland and Campbell. During the winter months, they do not leave the cold waters of Antarctica.

They nest in large colonies with other crested penguin species. The islands favored by land birds are rocky, with many caves in the rocks suitable for building nests for penguins. It is in such caves that future feathered parents carefully build places for hatching offspring.

reproduction

As mentioned earlier, crested penguins breed in large colonies. In the place where it is planned to arrange nesting (a flat section of rocks no higher than 65-70 m above sea level), males come first, after two weeks females join them. During the reunion, fights between males begin, as the beginning of the mating season is celebrated annually in the penguin kingdom.

When passions subside, married couples start building a nest. First, the female, having picked up a place, removes garbage from it with her paws. The male is given the "male" hard work, he brings material consisting of stones, grass and mud. From all this, the future father of the family lays out a nest.

In early October, egg laying begins, which lasts 3-4 days. Mother penguin lays two eggs, one small and one large. During laying, the female does not eat anything. When the eggs are already in the nest, incubation begins for 35 days. The first egg in 98 percent of cases disappears, and the remaining second hatches.

After sitting for 2-3 days on eggs, future mom leaves to look for food, the male remains on duty in the nest, all responsibility falls on him. For 3-4 weeks, a caring father does not eat anything, he cannot leave the nest, otherwise the eggs will freeze. So the poor fellow has to fast, waiting for the return of the female. During this time, the handsome crested man is losing weight, if his wife does not return on time, he may die of hunger.

After this period, if the female's trip ends successfully, she returns to her husband and the hatched chick (very rarely there are two chicks). The male leaves the family and goes off in search of food to gain back the weight he has lost. Crested mother penguin feeds babies by regurgitating food, keeps them warm and cares for them. In February, the fledgling grown babies leave the shelter in which they were born.

Moult

A very entertaining moment in the life of penguins is molting, this phenomenon is very long, and they are preparing for it already in February. After the chicks leave the nest, adult birds leave and leave to feed before molting in the sea for a whole month. After this period, the families get together again, this leads to mating games. At this time, a real molt begins, which lasts 28 days. It is with penguins during molting that they are inseparable and spend all the time near the nest. In mid-April, the renewal of feathers is completed, and the crested penguins go to sea again.

How do they talk?

Penguins are birds, albeit terrestrial. These fat women know how to sing, especially during the period of courting a female, if, of course, these mating "serenades" can be called songs. The penguin's voice is more like a scream. Their mating games accompanied by low sounds that are repeated evenly. Black and white singers “sing” in this way only during the day; at night, their screams will never be heard.

How do they fight?

Male penguins, like all males, sometimes like to put up fights. Most often this happens because of females or when you have to protect the nest from uninvited guests. Aggressive rivals stretch their heads vertically with a belligerent crest raised and swing it from side to side. Before the start of the fight, the males begin to "trumpet", while bowing and twitching their shoulders.

During a fight, the penguins bow their heads with a grunt, hit each other with their beaks and fins-wings. Sometimes bites are even used if the combatants are too engrossed in the battle.

A very crested penguin, the photo confirms this, because not all nature lovers can afford to see these creatures in natural environment a habitat. There is scientific evidence that over the past 45 years, the number of penguins has decreased by almost half. This species is listed in the Red Book!

This species belongs to the penguin family and is included in the genus crested penguins. The crested penguin lives in the very north of the subantarctic zone. These birds live on the Falkland Islands, on the Tierra del Fuego archipelago, on the south coast. South America, in the Auckland Islands, in the Antipodes Islands. Nesting sites - rocky terrain near water bodies with fresh water and other natural water sources. This species is divided into 2 subspecies.

Description

The body length is 48-62 cm. The weight varies from 2 to 3.4 kg. The largest specimens reach a mass of 4.5 kg. The plumage is waterproof. Feathers in length reach 2.5-2.9 cm. The back of the representatives of the species is blue-black, the chest and belly are white with a slight yellowish tinge. The head is black.

The beak is short and has a red-brown color. The eyes are small and dark red, the paws are pinkish, located behind the body. The wings are narrow and look like flippers. A notable feature of these birds are the peculiar long feathers on their heads. They stretch from the beak and end behind the eyes with tassels. Their color is yellow, sometimes yellow-white.

Reproduction and lifespan

This species nests in large colonies, which may contain up to 100,000 nests. The couples are monogamous. The breeding season is September - November. There are 2 eggs in the clutch different sizes. The chick that hatches from the larger egg usually survives.

The incubation period lasts about 33 days. The male and female take turns incubating the eggs. In the lower abdomen, crested penguins have a patch of skin without feathers. It provides heat transfer from the body to the eggs. After hatching, during the first 25 days, the male remains with the offspring, and the female gets food and feeds herself. After this time, the chickens are combined into small groups of "nursery". They stay there until they are fully grown.

After breeding, adult birds accumulate fat reserves and prepare for the annual molt. It takes 25 days. During this time, representatives of the species completely change their plumage. After molting, they leave the land and spend the winter months at sea. They return to the shore to start breeding again. IN wild nature crested penguin lives 10-12 years.

Behavior and nutrition

A notable feature of the representatives of the species is that, overcoming obstacles, they do not slide on them with their stomachs and do not rise with the help of wings, as other penguins do. They try to jump over boulders and cracks. TO marine life they are well adapted. They have streamlined bodies and strong wings to help them move quickly through the water. The diet consists of krill and other crustaceans. Squids, octopuses, fish are also eaten. When extracting prey, they can dive to a depth of 100 meters.

conservation status

The number of crested penguins is decreasing from year to year. Over the past 30 years, it has fallen by 34%. In the Falkland Islands, numbers have declined by 90% over the past 60 years. This is due to the growth of tourism and pollution. environment. Commercial squid harvesting also contributes to the reduction in the number of these penguins. Currently this species has a status of concern.

Although this penguin was called "big", it can not be called large.

And if you compare it with emperor penguin, whose height is 120 cm and weight 30 kg, then he may even seem like a baby. After all, the growth of this penguin is only 55 cm, and the weight is about 4 kilograms.

Apparently due to such a discrepancy between the name and appearance this penguin is more often called the Snar golden-crested. Another name is the crested Snar penguin. Both indicate that this species belongs to the Snar Islands archipelago. These penguins really live only here, in a small area, the area of ​​\u200b\u200bwhich does not exceed 3.3 square kilometers.

Although the place is small, it has many advantages for its inhabitants. First, there are no predators. Secondly, many bushes and trees grow under which penguins can nest. An equally positive point is that the archipelago is a marine reserve, so there is practically no human intervention in the life of penguins. According to biologists, from thirty to thirty-three thousand pairs of penguins of this species nest in this small area.


Big penguin: a sophisticated combination of a black tailcoat with yellow eyebrows.

hallmark a large penguin are yellow tufts located above his eyes. Like other penguin species, its back, head, wings and tail are black, and its belly is white. The Snar penguin has had enough powerful beak, the base of which is white or pink. It is necessary to distinguish the Snar penguin from the Victoria penguin, since the former has black cheeks, while the latter has white feathers growing on them. Males and females do not differ in appearance from each other, except that males are slightly taller and heavier.


The behavior of these penguins is interesting to watch because it is very funny, and even when they show aggression. For example, if a penguin notices an uninvited guest on its site, then it spreads its wings wide, starts stomping, and all this is accompanied by grumbling. Thus, the Snar penguin tries to scare the enemy. In some cases, he performs the same actions without sound, perhaps it seems to him that he looks even scarier that way.

And in relation to their partners, crested Snar penguins are very polite. Returning from feeding, they begin to bow to each other, the female is the first, and the male answers her bows. If the spouse was absent somewhere for a long time, then, having returned, he performs another ritual: he looks the female in the eyes, after which he bows his head and lets out a loud cry, while stretching his beak. The female in response repeats all his actions. Apparently, in this way they recognize spouses in each other. And if the partners are very bored, then they shorten the ceremony and trumpet and bow at the same time.


Males, while courting their chosen one, stretch to their full height, inflate their chest, and spread their wings, thereby trying to visually add extra pounds and centimeters to themselves. In their opinion, this is how they are more likely to please the female.

Listen to the voice of the big penguin


Large penguins build their nests on the ground. To do this, they first dig a small hole, and then line its bottom with small branches. The female lays two eggs, and she does this with a break of 3-4 days. The first egg is noticeably smaller than the second. Both parents incubate them alternately. While one of them warms the masonry, the second brings him food. Penguins are born in 32-35 days. However, one of the kids, unfortunately, will be destined to die due to adverse weather conditions.

crested penguin (Eudyptes sclateri)

Class - Birds

Squad - Piguinoid

Family - Penguins

Genus - Crested penguins

Appearance

This is an average penguin with a body length of 55-65 cm, weighing about 2-5 kg. Females are significantly inferior in size to males. Grayish-brown chicks are white below. The plumage of the penguin on the back, wings and head is black, the chin, throat and cheeks are white. Two pale yellow tufts of feathers extend from the nostrils through the dark red eyes along the crown back. Grown up chicks are somewhat different from adults, the main difference is the yellow cross on the head smaller size than in adults. It is distinguished from other crested penguins by the ability to move its feather dress.

Habitat

It lives near Australia and New Zealand, nests on the Antipodes, Bounty, Campbell and Auckland Islands.

In nature

They feed on fish - Antarctic silverfish (Pleuragramma antarcticum), anchovies (Engraulidae) or sardines (herring family), as well as crustaceans such as euphausiids, or krill, or small cephalopods, which they hunt by swallowing directly under water.

Penguins drink mostly sea ​​water. Excess salt is excreted through special glands located above the eyes.

These penguins are among the public species. They have interesting courtship rituals, which are accompanied by low repetitive sounds - the "song". The call of the penguin is repeated at an even pace and consists of the same set of sounds. The cry of a penguin can only be heard during the daytime. Chicks also call their parents with cries, but their “song” is much shorter and not so complicated, and it is sung at higher notes.

reproduction

The large crested penguin breeds in large colonies. Males usually return to nesting sites two weeks before females. The beginning of the mating season is marked by extraordinary activity, including fights. Nesting is arranged on a flat area of ​​rocks no higher than 70 m above sea level. The female builds the nest by herself, raking out debris from under it with her paws. The male lays out the nest with stones, mud and grass. Eggs are laid from early October, laying lasts three to five days, during which time the female does not eat anything.

There are two eggs in the clutch, the second egg is larger than the first. The eggs are light blue or greenish in color, but later they turn brown. From the moment when the second egg is laid, incubation begins, which lasts 35 days. The first egg usually does not survive (in 98% of cases) so penguins only incubate one egg.

During the winter months, the penguin does not leave the cool waters of the Subantarctic, but where exactly he spends all this time has not been established. It usually nests in colonies with other crested penguin species. The rocky islands abound in many caves suitable for nesting. There is little vegetation on them, usually low grass and shrubs.

They take turns incubating: two or three days after the eggs are laid, the female leaves the nest, and the male remains on guard. This lasts three to four weeks, all this time the penguin fasts. Then the chicks hatch. The female returns to the chicks during the day to feed them by regurgitating food. In February, the chicks already have plumage and they leave the islands that gave them birth.

The average life expectancy is 10 years.

Required for penguins special conditions, requiring not only the presence of a special pool, but also a climate control system. Seemingly harmless creatures, they have a complex character and at any moment can peck or bite until they bleed. Birds are a lot of trouble. They often get sick, are very picky about food - they prefer mainly fish. Despite all the difficulties of keeping, penguins feel great in captivity.

For a comfortable stay, penguins need a cold atmosphere, a spacious swimming pool and a rocky shore. The air temperature in the pool is not higher than 15-20°C, the water temperature in the pool is 10-15°C. In addition, penguins do not tolerate the sun well, so if the enclosure is located outside, it is necessary to equip a grotto in it, where the penguins could hide during the day.