Dear Trish-
Thank you for that question. A creche is a group of penguins chicks. When chicks are born, one adult has to stay with the chick at all times. As soon as the chicks get older, they form creches because their parents have to feed. If the chicks are by themselves, they could be eaten by a skua!
A skua is a bird that resembles a seagull. They prey on lone chicks, eggs and fish. Skua are one of the many predators of penguins. A few others are Leopard Seal, Orca, a few species of shark, and even sa few species of sea gull!
The penguin most under threat of habitat loss is the Yellow-eyed penguin of New Zealand. They live in forest or shrub land, and those areas are being cleared out for pasture land.
Dear Patti,
Thank you for asking that question. I have searched the internet, and I have not found any really good information. So I will make a guess. They could be too far from civilization. They could be too hard to track. Or it could be the "cuteness" factor. Scientists want to go see penguins that have already been seen before, because they're cute, or it's their favorite, etc. No one wants to go see those types of penguins, in my guess.
Dear Sarah,
For my information I used books, and Pete and Barb's penguin pages.
Dear Wondering,
You're right, that penguin test is pretty hard. But if I told you where to find the answers, that would be cheating, right? So I'll give you a hint. You are not going to get the answers by just guessing. If you did a little bit of research, the test might be easier! I would suggest using this site as a good place to start!
The population of the Yellow-eyed species is less then 4,000. That number may seem pretty big, but compare it to the population of Macaroni Penguins, with at least 24 million. Now that is a really big number! Macaroni Penguins are quite adaptable, so they can live in a variety of climates. But the Yellow-eyed species isn't quite so adaptable. In fact they are really not very social, which doesn't help the dwindling numbers. If a pair of yellow-eyed penguins sees another nesting pair, both pairs will abandon the nests!!! They could never live in a city...
Dear Mrs. Jimmy McElroy,
I honestly don't know why a crested penguin is called "royal", and the two tallest penguins are called "Emperor" and "King." I'm guessing that it's just the way that the people that discovered them wanted to name them. It's a guessing game about opinions.
There are actually quite a few penguins who never see ice or snow. The Humboldt Penguin lives in a desert, African Penguins live in Africa, and Galapagos Penguins live in the Galapagos! Rockhoppers, Kings, Gentoos, and Magellanic Penguins rarely see snow. So do most of the Crested Penguins. Lots of penguins never see snow!!!
Dear Poochie,
The penguins that are most in danger from Global warming are Galapagos penguins. They live in the Galapagos Islands, which is a pretty warm place. But penguins all live by cold currents, because they are rich in nutrients. The krill live in the cold currents, and fish eat the krill. Penguins eat fish and krill, so the cold currents are essential to life for them. But when the water warms up, the nutrients dissolve and the krill and fish go away. The penguins are left alone, without food. And you couldn't move them because it would be destroying mother nature's way of things. For example, Norwegian explorers once took King penguins and moved them from their home to off the coast of Norway. The penguins survived for a few years, but didn't mate. So, there were no new penguins, and they all died out.
Dear Chazz Michael Michaels,
There are 4,000 Yellow-eyed penguins, and there are 24 million macaroni penguins. Those are the most plentiful and the least plentiful.
I'm sorry Chazz if I seemed rude. I was just pointing out that I already answered that question, but was happy to answer it again. I apologize.
Dear Chinstrap,
The King Penguin and Emperor Penguin have very long legs, because they are the biggest species.
Dear Ecky,
The Penguin that lives in the Desert is the Humboldt Penguin. If you just happened to look on a map of ocean currents, you would find a cold water current that starts at Antarctica and goes up the coast of Chile and Peru. This cold water current, the Humboldt Current, is rich in nutrients, and fish and krill love those nutrients. Thus, the Humboldt Penguin lives in the desert because of the plentiful fish supply. And to answer your other question, that would not be a hostile environment for that species. If you put an Emperor Penguin in that climate, the poor bird would cook to death. But the Humboldt has developed a way to cool off. The Humboldt, African, Galapagos, and Magellanic have all developed patches of bare skin around their eyes to aid in heat dispersal. In other words, the pink patches of flesh around penguins' beaks mean that they come from a warm to hot climate!
Dear Adelie,
Thank you for the message, you did make a very interesting point. However, because the number of penguins is still under debate, I chose to say seventeen species, which I found was the commonly excepted number. This site is for base information on the species, and if a Penguin Lover wishes to continue his or her study of penguins, he or she can research the matter and the different sub-species. But, I would really love to thank you for the enlightening letter. It gave me an opportunity to discuss the matter of species numbers, and I would love to hear more from you if you do have another correction. Thank you again!
Dear BirdLover/Emery:
Do you need some interesting facts about penguins? Well, then, here goes... Did you know that a penguin's poop (guano) color can tell you what it's been eating? If it's white, it's most likely been eating squid or fish, if it's pink, it's been eating a lot of krill. On the subject of guano... When certain types of penguins are nesting (Especially Gentoo, Adelie, and Chinstrap) they will spray each other with guano. Is this enough? If you need more, you can just post again!
Dear Valerie Kennedy:
King Penguins, Gentoo Penguins, Yellow-Eyed Penguins, Royal Penguins, Magellanic Penguins, Macaroni Penguins, Adelie Penguins, African Penguins, Chinstrap Penguins, Erect-Crested Penguins, Snares Penguins, Fiordland Penguins, Rockhopper Penguins, Galapagos Penguins, and Fairy Penguins all live on islands.
Dear Melanie,
That's a good question. If you placed, say an Emperor Penguin, in a hot environment they would probably die from the intense heat that they are feeling. But not all penguins live in cold climates. African penguins live in southern Africa, the Galapogos Penguins live in the Galapogos Islands, etc. So it really depends on the Penguin.
Dear Laura,
The best times to see New Zealand's penguins are in their nesting/breeding season. This occurs around June-November. Visit this site to learn more.
Dear Pitaten-lover,
Galapogos penguins are the northern-most penguins, but they are perhaps in the most danger due to global warming. You can visit these sites to learn more:
Galapogos Online
Penguins Around the World
IPCWG
If you have already viewed those sites, or you want to know more, don't hesitate to post anything on "Ask the Penguin Expert" page!