Penguin Awareness Day is celebrated on January 20 of every year. Penguins are a group of aquatic and flightless birds.
They live in the Southern Hemisphere and a particular species of the Penguin named Galapagos Penguin is found only in the north equator region called Temperate Zone.
The Penguins are counter-shaded dark and white plumage. Their Wings have evolved into flippers, and they live in water areas only.
Most of the penguins will feed krill, squid, fish and some forms of sea life creatures that are caught while swimming under the water.
The life of Penguins may be divided into two portions. They spend half of their lives on land and another half in the ocean. The Penguin Awareness Day was initiated to bring more focus to the conservation of Penguin Habitats.
History of Penguin Awareness Day:
The exact origin and the founder of Penguin Awareness Day are still unknown. The term Penguin first published in the 16th century as a synonym for Great Auk. There is a debate about the etymology of the name “Penguin ”.
The source of the word is from the English or Dutch. The alternative etymology relates the word to Latin Word “Pinguis” which refers to Fat or Oil.
Penguins are divided into three categories named Brush-Tail, Crested and King or Emperor. Nearly 17 species of Penguins come under those three categories.
The majority of Penguins are found in Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica, South Africa and Galapagos Island (Temperate Climate).
The smallest penguin is Little Blue Penguin which is off 16 Inches tall and 2.2 lbs of weight.
The Largest Penguin in the world is the Emperor which is off 3.7 feet tall and 75 pounds of weight. It is believed that some of the old penguins grew up to the size of human beings.
There is the fact that the white and black coloured penguins are Camouflage. It helps them to hide from underwater predators.
Normally Penguins are good at diving and Swimming. Even though they are part of the Bird Family, they can’t fly.
To move quickly underwater, they use their wings as flippers. Penguins have excellent vision in water and thus they avoid them from Predators.
At a time, they can remain underwater for nearly 15-20minutes and are capable of swimming 12 miles per hour. The Penguins seem to be having no fear of human beings, and they are Friendly with peoples.
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How to celebrate Penguin Awareness Day:
Celebrating the Penguin Awareness Day is quite easy. Learn more about those birds and their habitats.
If your local zoo has penguins, just visit the zoo with your friends, family members and spend some time observing more facts about Penguins.
Penguin Facts:
The beautiful animal is one with a wide variety of facts. We’ve got just a few of them below for you.
There are 17 species of penguins, with the largest being the Emperor, that can get up to almost four feet tall, and the smallest being the blue penguin, standing at 16 inches.
They have excellent vision in the water and can stay underwater for 15 to 20 minutes without coming up for air, and swim up to 22 miles per hour.
- They are extremely friendly towards humans – this could be because they aren’t known to have any land predators.
- Penguins weigh anywhere from 2lbs to 80lbs.
- Penguins have flippers not wings.
- One of the biggest threats to penguins is climate change.
- The black and white coloring of the penguin is actually for camouflage.
- Penguins live 15-20 years.
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