The penguin is one of the best-known flightless seabirds due to its friendly appearance, although truly under this term we can encompass between 16 and 19 species.
Adapted to cold climates, the penguin is distributed in the southern hemisphere, specifically on the coasts of Antarctica, New Zealand, southern Australia, South Africa, the Subantarctic Islands and Argentine Patagonia.
If you want to discover more about this exceptional bird, in this article on our site we talk about penguin feeding.
The digestive system of the penguin
Penguins assimilate all the nutrients they obtain from the various foods they eat thanks to their digestive system, whose functioning does not vary excessively from human digestive physiology.
The penguin's digestive system is made up of the following structures:
- Mouth
- Esophagus
- Maw
- Proventricle
- Gizzard
- Intestine
- Liver
- Pancreas
- Sewer
Another important aspect of the penguin's digestive system is a gland also found in other seabirds, which is responsible foreliminate excess s alt ingested with sea water and therefore makes drinking fresh water unnecessary.
The penguin can go 2 days without eating and this period of time does not affect any structure of its digestive system.
What did the penguins eat?
Penguins are animals considered carnivorous heterotrophs, which feed mainly on krill as well as small fish and squid, however, the Species belonging to the genus Pygoscelis base their diet mainly on plankton.
Yes, we can say that regardless of gender and species, all penguins supplement their diet through plankton and the intake of cephalopods, small marine invertebrates.
How do penguins hunt?
Due to adaptive processes, the penguin's wings have actually become fins with strong bones and rigid joints, which allow a technique of wing-powered diving, giving the penguin its primary means of mobility in the water.
Seabird hunting behavior has been the subject of numerous studies, so researchers at the National Polar Research Institute in Tokyo placed cameras on 14 Antarctic penguins and were able to observe that these animals they are extremely fast, in 90 minutes they can eat 244 krill and 33 small fish.
When the penguin goes to catch the krill it does so by swimming upwards, a behavior that is not arbitrary, since it seeks to deceive its other prey, the fishOnce the krill have been caught, the penguin quickly changes direction and heads towards the seabed where it can hunt various small fish.
The penguin, an animal that needs to be protected
The population of the different species of penguins is decreasing more and more frequently due to multiple factors, among which we can highlight the oil spill, the destruction of their habitat, hunting and weather.
It is a protected species, in fact, even studying them for any scientific purpose requires the prior approval and supervision of various agencies, however, activities such as illegal hunting or events such as global warming continue to threaten this beautiful seabird.
