Do penguins swim or fly? Surely you have seen photographs and videos of penguins, those birds with black and white bodies that live in the coldest areas of the planet. To survive in such extreme climates, the species had to adapt not only to the ecosystem, but also to the possible predators found in it and to the places that represent the greatest food source.
In this sense, Do penguins fly or not? How or where do they catch their prey? Where do penguins go in the winter? This and other questions will be answered in the next article on our site.
Are penguins birds?
The penguin belongs to the Sphenisciforme order, which includes 17 different species that are distributed mainly in the southern hemisphere of the planet, as well as being present in the Galapagos Islands. To learn more about where penguins live, don't miss this article.
They are flightless birds, that is, penguins do not fly, despite the fact that the different species descend from birds that were able to do it. Instead, they are excellent swimmers, a skill they use to hunt down prey in the icy ocean waters and to escape their respective predators.
Because they use their wings to swim, the bones of their wings are smaller than in flying birds and have more feathers. Are you interested in knowing why penguins cannot fly? We will explain them to you below.
Why don't penguins fly?
Penguin wings are perfect for swimming, but useless when it comes to flying. For a long time, the reason for this was an enigma, but today there is a hypothesis that seems to be the most successful.
The research conducted involved the National Geographic Society and various scientists and ecologists, such as Katsufumi Sato (Tokyo Ocean Research University), John Speakman (University of Aberdeen) and Kyle Elliott (University of Manitoba). The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. According to this hypothesis, penguins were able to fly in the past, but this represented for them an effort and an excessive energy expenditure Although it is true that flying could mean a benefit for them, since it allowed them to move faster (the species is distinguished, among other things, by a clumsy walk) and to flee from predators, this energy expenditure was too much for their bodies, since they are the species to whom This action costs him more effort, especially in the adverse conditions of the hemisphere.
This theory is supported by the knowledge of biomechanics, a discipline that has shown that for the ancestors of the penguins it represented a better option to adapt their wings to the water, where they could get more prey and, at the same time, quickly flee from possible threats, than develop better flight capabilities.
As a result of this evolutionary process, the wings of penguins adapted to be smaller than those of other birds relative to the size of their bodies, but with stronger and denser bones. In addition, this reduction in wings also brought larger bodies, which were more suitable for diving. At the same time, the legs, which give them that graceful appearance when walking, actually serve as rudders when the penguins are in the water, due to their position on the body. Thanks to all this, they are able to reach between 10 and 60 kilometers per hour swimming
How do penguins get around?
Despite their inability to fly, you've probably seen videos of penguins quickly “jumping” or “floating” out of the water to reach dry land. What is it about? Is it some kind of rudimentary flight?
Scientists Roger Hughes and John Davenport, from the University of Bangor and the University of Cork respectively, were struck by this fact and focused on finding out what it was. Observations showed that penguins are able to push themselves out of the water in the same way that man-made projectiles do. They do this because they wrap their body with a kind of "layer" made up of air bubbles. These bubbles come from the penguin's feathers, since before entering the water they expand them to fill with air. They use the technique of propelling themselves as if they were projectiles to get out of the water, especially when there is a predator nearby. At that point, they retract their feathers and swim to the surface quickly, so when they come out of the water, the accumulated air bubbles push them several meters out.
On the other hand, penguins mainly move by swimming to feed and migrate, taking advantage of sea currents to adopt greater speed. During migrations, which we will talk about in the next section, it is common for penguins to complete a large part of the route swimming, and others walking.
Where do penguins go in winter?
Despite living in the southern hemisphere, where low temperatures are common, when winter arrives penguins migrate to better quality areasto survive. They also migrate when the amount of food becomes scarce at certain times of the year, or to find better conditions during the breeding season. They do this by taking long walks that can take almost 100 days or swimming.
The species that live on the Falkland Islands, for example, head northwest through the waters of South America. The further south of the continent they are, when the winter season arrives, the species move as far north as possible. These are trips that, many times, mean the lives of the youngest or that imply that some of the individuals get lost. Despite this, the bulk of the herd arrives at the same places every year.
