Whenever you mention penguins, you will always think of Antarctica, just as when you mention pandas, you will always think of China. However, the difference is that the natural habitat of pandas only exists in China, while penguins are not limited to such a region.
For a long time, penguins have been known to the world as the chubby, flightless birds found on the glaciers of Antarctica. But the habitat of penguins is much more diverse; besides the extremely cold Antarctica, these birds can also live in temperate regions with four distinct seasons, and even near the equator with temperatures ranging from 20 to 30 degrees Celsius!
Penguin habitat.
Penguins are an ancient bird-like creature, and their ancestors may have existed before the glaciers of Antarctica formed.
About 65 million years ago, the possibility of a comet colliding with Earth led to rapid climate changes that resulted in the extinction of half of all species, including dinosaurs.
The surviving species entered the next evolutionary period – the Mesozoic Era. There are currently two views on why these birds cannot fly. The first is that penguins have never been able to fly. The second is that penguins could initially fly, but due to certain challenges such as a lack of food in the air, they were forced to give up their ability to fly and live on land and in water.
After many years of natural selection, the wings of these birds evolved into a flipper-like shape, forming their current appearance. Based on existing fossil evidence, the first possibility seems more likely.
Penguin skull.
In the mid-15th century, Portuguese sailors first discovered penguins at the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, but they showed little interest in their existence.
In the early 16th century, the Magellan fleet once again found penguins along the coast of Argentina, referring to them as “unidentified geese.”
Even before humans set foot on the Antarctic continent, the two earliest discoveries of penguins occurred in the temperate regions of the Southern Hemisphere.
As time passed, more and more people discovered the penguin species, sparking the interest of biologists who began to study them, but this research was often limited to professional exploration with very little impact.
Since the 19th century, an increasing number of people began to set foot on the Antarctic continent, and explorers found penguins in the glacial areas, with their numbers being so impressive that it shocked biologists. The total number of known penguins is about 140 million, which can be divided into 18 species.
Over time, more people discovered penguins.
Among them, only two species, the Emperor penguin and the Adelie penguin, live entirely in Antarctica, with a total population of nearly 120 million. In other words, over 85% of the penguins on our planet are concentrated in Antarctica. Particularly in human life, the Emperor penguin and the Adelie penguin are the two species that most frequently appear in the media.
Since then, in the eyes of the world, penguins seem to have become endemic to Antarctica. In reality, nearly 20 million penguins live in temperate regions. Additionally, there is only one species of penguin that lives in the Galápagos Islands near the equator, spanning both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, thus they are referred to as “equatorial penguins.”
The Galápagos Islands are located in the eastern Pacific Ocean, about 1,000 km from the South American mainland, belonging to Ecuador. The archipelago consists of 13 main islands formed by the solidification of volcanic lava and many scattered coral reefs, with a total land and sea area of approximately 13,000 square kilometers and a population of fewer than 30,000 people.
About 5 to 10 million years ago, an underground volcano erupted, causing the Galápagos Islands to rise. Many species migrated here and underwent long-term reproduction and evolution, thus retaining a more primitive shape compared to terrestrial organisms. Therefore, it is called “a living museum of biological evolution” and has also been recognized by UNESCO as a “World Natural Heritage.”
The Galápagos Islands lie across the equator.
Although the Galápagos Islands lie across the equator, they are affected by the cold Peru Current, resulting in a diverse climate that includes hot, cool, dry, and humid conditions, allowing both warm and cold-loving organisms to coexist here, forming a small, isolated ecosystem.
Penguins originally lived in the mid-latitude and high-latitude regions of the Southern Hemisphere, corresponding to the current cold and temperate zones. Later, the Earth underwent a prolonged and significant cooling process, leading to the formation of glaciers in Antarctica. Most penguin species gradually adapted to life on the glaciers, while a few still live in temperate regions.
The Galápagos Islands are isolated tropical islands. Penguins cannot be local native species and cannot fly. So how did they migrate? Why did they choose the Galápagos Islands instead of the rest of the equator?
All of this is thanks to the Peru Current. The scale of the Peru Current is unique in the world, and it is known as the strongest cold current in the world.
First, the Peru Current can directly push the cold water from Antarctica down to the equator, extending nearly 60 degrees of latitude.
Second, due to the lack of large land masses and islands in the Southeast Pacific, the strong ocean currents were initially unaffected by geographical obstacles during their drift, leading to the Peru Current flowing quickly, which could accelerate the swimming speed of penguins.
Penguins swim very fast in the water, reaching speeds of up to 30 km/h, and on average, they can travel about 160 km each day.
The shortest distance between the Galápagos Islands and the South American mainland is less than 1,000 km. With the help of ocean currents, these penguins can reach the Galápagos Islands in less than a week.
Thus, the penguins that originally lived in the frigid and temperate zones drifted along the ocean currents to the vicinity of the Galápagos Islands, where they thrived and evolved, gradually adapting to tropical life.
Equatorial penguins and Antarctic penguins have many different characteristics, such as the equatorial penguin being very small, only 50 cm tall, weighing 2.5 kg, with pink around the eyes, stripes on the chest, and spots on the belly.
Equatorial penguins and Antarctic penguins have many different characteristics.
In reality, the habitat of equatorial penguins is very fragile and complex, and even a small change in any link can cause them to lose their habitat.
Although the Peru Current provides them with a relatively cool shelter to some extent, the global climate is currently undergoing rapid changes, and climate warming has increased the challenges for their survival.
Not only equatorial penguins but many other species are on the brink of extinction, and humanity bears an unshakable responsibility.
