Emperor Penguins

Emperor Penguins Cindy Tang Jonathan Wang Jonathan Chen Shyla Logan Learning Team #6 Period 3, Life Science Miss Kwon

Classification • Kingdom: Animalia • Phylum: Chordata • Class: Aves • Order: Sphenisciformes • Family: Spheniscidae • Genus: Aptenodytes • Species: Aptenodytesforsteri

Physical Characteristics • The emperor penguin has a black head, chin, and throat. They also have yellow patches on each side of their head. • Emperor Penguins can grow up to 112 cm in height. • They weigh from 60 to 90 pounds. • The Emperor Penguins are the largest of all living penguins. • The Emperor penguin has a thick layer of down feathers an blubber that insulates their body heat from the cold.

Behavioral Characteristics • Male Emperor Penguins like to huddle in a group to reduce the amount of heat loss in their body. They rotate every once in a while to make it fair. • Emperor Penguins can not walk fast so they are known to slide across the ice on their bellies. • Emperor Penguins breed during the Artic Winter, where the temperatures can drop to -80 degrees. • When a male Emperor Penguin is incubating an egg, he keeps the egg under his brood pouch for about 120 days. He doesn’t eat or move, only to shift positions in the group. While incubating, he loses about one-third of his body weight.

Food Source • These fascinating penguins mainly get their food from the ocean. • Their diet consists of fish, squid, crustaceans (shrimp and crabs), and especially krill. • A group of five million penguins may consume 17.6 million pounds of krill and small fishes daily. • They catch prey with their bills and just gobble them down whole while swimming. • They hunt in packs for a better chance of covering more area for more food.

Habitat • Emperor penguins live in the Southern Hemisphere and only in Antarctica. • They live on islands that are away from predators because they have the disadvantage of not flying. • They spend about 75% of their lives in the sea. • Those snowy places’ temperature range from -40 to 70 degrees Celsius. • Their habitat is cold, snowy, and sometimes even slippery. • Although those are the conditions we might think is bad, it is the conditions where they need to live in.

Adaptations • Penguins have an ability to store large amounts of oxygen • They can tolerate the effects of pressure and the low levels of oxygen by changing their heartbeat at different points of diving. • Emperor Penguins have about seventy feathers per square inch to survive in the Artic temperatures. • They purposely lay their eggs in the winter because by the time the chicks are old enough to swim and fish for their food, the ice will melt and the water is closer to the breedingsite. • Their wings help a penguin swim very quickly to escape its predators, such as the

Interesting Facts • The emperor penguin can dive to a depth of 870 feet and stay underwater for 18 minutes. • Its blood temperature is about the same as humans. • They have to use sounds to locate their children. • When they don’t toboggan (slide on their bellies), they wobble or swim from 6-9 kilometers per hour. • They sleep with their bill under a flipper, which some people think has no use but looking cute. • Sometimes to stay warm, they lift their feet, balancing on their heel and tail so there will be less contact with the icy ground.

Citations • http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birds/emperor-penguin.html • http://www.antarcticconnection.com/antarctic/wildlife/penguins/emperor.shtml • http://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarctica%20fact%20file/wildlife/Penguin_royalty_King_and_Emperor_penguins.htm • http://www.seaworld.org/infobooks/Penguins/home.html • http://www.siec.k12.in.us/~west/proj/penguins/emperor.html • http://www.penguinworld.com/types/emperor.html • http://www.whaletimes.org/emppeng.htm • http://www.d81.w-cook.k12.il.us/kennedy/asmith/penguins/emperor.html • http://www.aad.gov.au/default.asp?casid=6410 • http://www.whereincity.com/india-kids/animals/penguin.htm • http://www.seaworld.org/animal-info/animal-bytes/animalia/eumetazoa/coelomates/deuterostomes/chordata/craniata/aves/sphenisciformes/emperor-penguin.htm • http://www.science-facts.com/2008/07/17/emperor-penguin-facts/ • http://earthguide.ucsd.edu/penguins/facts.html

Emperor Penguins