Meet the World’s Penguins

Penguins are a group of 18 species within the family Spheniscidae, they are the only family within the order Sphenisciformes.

These birds all share a lack of flight. Instead their body is well adapted for swimming with all of the species finding their food in the water. The wings of other birds have adapted in to feathers.

While the color of their body varies from blue to black all penguins exhibit countershading. This is where they have a dark color on their back and a light color on their belly. This provides camouflage while swimming in the water.

They are capable of incredibly deep dies with emperor penguins recorded at depths of up to 500m (1640ft). Underwater they may hold their breath for up to 20 minutes.

Their feathers overlap helping to make them waterproof while swimming. Each year they molt their feathers within the period of a few weeks. During this time they are not waterproof and cannot swim or hunt.

A group of penguins is known as a colony. Guinness World Records have recorded a colony of the chinstrap penguins as the largest penguin colony with as many as 2 million individuals there.

All species are colonial and penguins are highly social birds.

A King Penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus)

Record Breakers

World’s largest Penguin

The largest of the eighteen penguin species is the emperor penguin. They can stand up to 1.2m (47in) tall and weigh up to 47kg (100lbs)

World’s smallest Penguin

At just 33cm (13in) long and a weight of 1.5kg (3.3lbs) the little penguin of Australia and New Zealand is the smallest species of penguin.

An African Penguin (Spheniscus demersus)

Penguin Species – A full list of the 18 species

An Emperor Penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri)

Species Profiles – A detailed fact file on some of the world’s penguin species