Emperor Penguin Facts

Our knowledge about penguins is more or less restricted to popular culture, and that explains why the only thing that most of us know about them is that they are found in polar regions. The fact that penguins in wild are only found in the southern hemisphere or that there are no penguins at the North Pole are bound to come as a surprise for many people. There exist as many as 17 species of penguins in the world - and the Emperor Penguin boasts of being the largest as well as the heaviest among them.

Interesting Facts about the Emperor Penguin

The Emperor Penguin (scientific name: Aptenodytes forsteri) is a species of penguin endemic to ice-clad regions and frigid waters of Antarctica. Known for their fearless and curios nature, the Emperors have been a subject of fascination for biologists on Antarctica expedition since quite some time now. The elegance of this animal - which earns it the name Emperor Penguin, and its astounding adaptation skills are just a few of the numerous amazing attributes that this species boasts of. Given below are more of such facts which will add to your knowledge about this species.

Size and Appearance
With an average height of 45 inches (or roughly 4 ft), the Emperor Penguin is the largest of the 17 penguins species that inhabit the planet. At the same time, it is also the heaviest with the average weight in this species ranging between 85-90 lbs - quite heavy for a bird species. In terms of appearance, the Emperor Penguin is a classic example of the popular culture penguin with its black and white tuxedo. Other than that, this species is typically characterized by yellow ear patches and fading of dark plumage to brown color with the winter season coming to an end in November.

Geographical Range and Habitat
The Emperor Penguin population is restricted to the continent of Antarctica - in regions like the Ross Sea sector, Cape Washington, Halley Bay etc. Even though occasional sighting of this species has been recorded in South Georgia and in New Zealand, these regions are off the limits of its natural habitat. It is the only member of kingdom Animalia who spends the entire winter in cold ice-clad regions of Antarctica - when all other species move north to escape the brunt of harsh weather. The Emperors are often mistaken for King Penguin species, the King Penguin population is restricted to the sub-Antarctic region as opposed to ice-clad Antarctica which happens to be the Emperor Penguin bastion.

Reproduction and Young Ones
More importantly, it is the only species which breeds during the harsh winter season of Antarctica that is characterized by temperatures as low as -80°F and winds blowing at the speed of 110 mph or even more. Their reproductive cycle begins in March or April with courtship, and the female lays a single egg - which roughly weighs 1 lb, somewhere in May or early June. Even though 1 lb, it only constitutes 2.3 percent of the mothers body weight thus making it the smallest egg in proportion to mother's weight in kingdom Animalia. As soon as the female lays its egg, it leaves the nesting season to go out to the sea in search of food. For this it has to travel for 50 - 80 miles - a journey which takes quite some time to complete.

In the absence of female, the male Emperor penguin incubates the egg by placing it on its foot and covering it with the 'brood pouch' - a thick feathered skin dangling from its belly. As the male penguins do not eat anything in course of their babysitting escapade, they lose a significant amount of weight during this period. They only go out to the sea for feeding when the females return. When the females return though, they bring back some food for the young ones by stacking it in their belly. This food is eventually regurgitated, and fed to the newly hatched chicks. This continues till the onset of summer in December - when the ice starts melting and the young ones are able to learn swimming and fishing to fend themselves. On an average, the Emperor Penguins have a lifespan of around 20 years in wild.

Diet and Hunting
Even though the diet in this species is mostly dominated by various species of fish that are found in open water of the Southern Ocean, they are also known to resort to crustaceans (such as krill) and cephalopods (such as squids) when it comes to dietary habits. This is in stark contrast with most of the other different types of penguins which mostly rely on surface krill. As the top layer of the oceans around Antarctica gets frozen due to extreme cold, these penguins have to dive into the water and go to the bottom of ocean to catch its prey. It's here that their ability to stay submerged inside the cold water for 15-18 minutes comes into play.

Predators and Vocalization
Though the cases are rare, but the predator does become a prey when birds and aquatic mammals with which the penguin shares its habitat hunt and feed on its young ones. The list of predators of Emperor Penguin includes birds like Southern Giant Petrel and South Polar Skua, and mammals like the Leopard Seal and Orca. When vocalizing this species produces a distinct sound using two frequency bands which can be easily identified by its partner and young ones. This mode of communication has an important role to play - especially when the nesting site is flooded with thousands of individuals or when there is a threat of some predator.

Adaptations
In order to protect themselves from harsh cold, the Emperor Penguins huddle in large groups. Furthermore they exchange places after a brief interval - with the individual at the center of the huddle moving to its periphery when its considerably warm and allowing those individuals at the periphery to move to the center to protect each other from harsh conditions. Other adaptations in this species include their ability to thermoregulate (maintain core body temperature), ability to bring down its heart rate and shut down the non-essential organs, dense feathers (hundred feathers per inch), solid bones (as opposed to air-filled bones in other species) etc., - all of which play a crucial role in protecting it from the cold environment and high pressure conditions in its natural habitat.

It is estimated that around 400,000-450,000 Emperor Penguins exist on the planet today, and therefore the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has enlisted it as a Least Concerned species. More recently, however, a sharp decline in the population of this species has been recorded in a few regions - with the needle of suspicion pointing towards loss of habitat as a result of climate change.