17 Excellent Penguin Facts
/Hello everyone!
Some time ago, I undertook to write a post of educational and interesting penguin facts.
“One fact about each penguin species sounds about right,” I thought. “How many can there be? Like, 6-8?”
Spoiler alert: I was woefully underprepared. There are so very many species of penguins. There are 17!
Not including the extinct giant penguins, one of which grew up to 6ft tall! (But that’s a penguin fact for another day.)
Without further ado, may I present 17 top-quality penguin facts (about non-extinct penguin species). In order of no order. Also it’s technically only 16 penguin facts because there is one penguin that utterly defeated me and you’ll know it when you get there.
17 Penguin Facts
1. The King Penguin
Did you know that the Norwegian Royal Guards has a brigadier who is also a penguin?
YOU THOUGHT I MADE THAT UP DIDN’T YOU
Brigadier Sir Nils Olav III is an Edinburgh-based king penguin, and also a penguin - in fact the only penguin - who has been personally knighted by the King of Norway, who described him as a penguin “in every way qualified to receive the honour and dignity of knighthood”.
So, how did Sir Nils rise so far?
When the Edinburgh Zoo opened in 1913, Norway presented the zoo with a penguin (not Nils). When the Norwegian King’s Guard visited the zoo in 1961, while they were there for the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, a lieutenant took a liking to the penguin colony. He later arranged for the regiment to adopt a penguin as a mascot and/or ranking officer.
That penguin, Nils Olav, was originally a mere lance-corporal… but every time the Norwegian Royal Guard goes back to the zoo, they promote him.
“I LIKE THE COLOUR SCHEME OF YOUR TROUSERS, BUT YOUR BUTTONS ARE UNPOLISHED. COURT-MARTIAL!”
Should he pass away, his honours are transferred to the next penguin-in-line; the current PIC (Penguin-in-Command) is Nils Olav the Third.
2. The Chinstrap Penguin is the penguin who is responsible for this post, because I was having a bit of a Sad and so I looked at penguin pictures to cheer me up:
HAHAHAHA. HAHAHAHA HOW CAN YOU BE SAD WHEN WE LIVE IN A WORLD WHERE THIS IS A CREDIBLE BIRD
- and then, rather than go back to whatever it was I was meant to be doing, I read about penguins and I learn about Roy and Silo, who were a same-sex penguin couple who raised an abandoned egg as their own! And this got me started on penguin facts and now here we are.
Roy and Silo were a couple of gentlemen penguins who lived in a zoo. The zookeepers saw them performing the same behaviours and courtship rituals as a male/female penguin couple would, and also saw them trying to… hatch a rock. (Note: the zookeepers did not ever see them engaged in any acts of penguin fornication, and so we must imagine those ourselves. Please stop imagining them now, I’m getting sad again.)
So the zookeepers gave them an abandoned egg, and they hatched and raised it, and then in 2005 a children’s book was written about it and the children’s book was one of the ten most banned books in American libraries and schools for ten years in a row on account of all the gay penguins.
AHHHH MY EYES AND MORALS, PLEASE WON’T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN
3. The Fiordland Crested Penguin was named by an English zoologist called George Gray.
Geroge based its scientific name on the Greek words for “thick” and “beak.” How rude.
RUDE, BUT… NOT ENTIRELY INACCURATE.
4. The Adélie Penguin is a little, curious penguin who likes people; he got a lot of mentions in various accounts of the Scott expedition, mostly on account of their high curiosity and complete lack of fear around people and sled dogs.
ALSO ON ACCOUNT OF BEING CUTE AS SHIT
Apsley Cherry-Garrard, who was a survivor of the Scott expedition and also a man who appears to have been named after either a cocktail or a racehorse, wrote:
“One day a [dog] team was tethered by the side of the ship, and a penguin sighted them and hurried from afar off. The dogs became frantic with excitement as he neared them: he supposed it was a greeting, and the louder they barked and the more they strained at their ropes, the faster he bustled to meet them.
He was extremely angry with a man who went and saved him from a very sudden end, clinging to his trousers with his beak, and furiously beating his shins with his flippers.”
He liked them though: “Whatever a penguin does has individuality, and he lays bare his whole life for all to see. He cannot fly away.”
Which… ok, true, but it’s not like he does it on purpose.
“ALRIGHT WE BOTH KNOW I CANNOT FLY AWAY NOW STOP FUCKIN PEEKING AT ME”
5. There aren’t any facts of note about the Gentoo Penguin, so here’s a generic penguin fact: did you know that penguins are black and white for camouflage?
A predator looking up from under the water (ie: leopard seal) can’t really tell the difference between a white penguin tummy and the reflective surface of the water. And from above, a predator flying over a penguin can’t really tell the difference between black penguin back, and rock.
How this works out for penguins trundling across the snow, I am not so sure.
OR FOR PENGUINS DOING WHATEVER THE FUCK THIS IS
One of the areas the Gentoo penguin live on is Bird Island, which was discovered in 1775 by Captain James Cook, and named “on account of the vast numbers [of birds] that were upon it.”
He also discovered and named the Sandwich Islands but, disappointingly, this was after the Earl of Sandwich and not why I initially hoped.
6. You probably already know a lot about the Emperor Penguin on account of ‘March of the Penguins’ (or ‘Happy Feet’ depending on your taste in documentaries).
What you might not know is that his tongue is covered in inwards-facing barbs, so that prey can’t escape once caught! Just like an eel.
Not so happy feet now, is he.
BONUS FACT: MOST PICTURES OF EMPEROR PENGUINS LOOK LIKE 90S ALBUM COVERS
7. Little Blue Penguin
He is the smallest penguin and also very tourist-friendly. Every day all the penguins in the colony go out to sea to get food, and every night they swim back to the beach again and walk up to their… nests? Sorry, didn’t look that up, already closed the window.
Anyway, people like to sit about and watch them; so much in fact that they have build arena-style seating along the penguins’ route home and charge tourists $40 for the pleasure of sitting and observing the penguins -
AND FOR SOME REASON I FIND THAT ALL QUITE HILARIOUS.
The Little Blue Penguin is also apparently the penguin that inspired the Linux mascot, after the creator of Linux was pecked by a LBP while on holiday.
And also the LBP is also the penguin of choice for shipwreck survivors - as recently as 1949, as this excerpt from a shipwreck survivor’s interview in the Adelaide Mail will tell you:
“So today, with many misgiving, I caught a young penguin, dressed it, and presented it to Thelma to cook. We expected it to be rank and fishy. It was, however, surprisingly nice.”
I am fairly confident you aren’t allowed to eat them any more.
PLEASE DON’T EAT ME! EVEN THOUGH I LOOK FAIRLY DELICIOUS
8. The African penguin is also known as the ‘jackass penguin’.
It is called the African Penguin on account of living in Africa, and the Jackass Penguin apparently this is because it makes a loud donkey-like braying noise… but then so do plenty of South American penguins, and nobody is going round calling them jackasses.
What did this penguin do? Did it peck a whole bunch of researchers? Did it steal their picnic lunches? Did it doubt their findings? About itself?
“OH NO, LOOK AT ME, I’M ABOUT TO FALL OVER BECAUSE I AM SO BIG AND CLUMSY! HA HA LOOK AT ME I’M A RESEARCHER'“
African penguins have a unique pattern of black spots and stripes on their chest, and this pattern is as unique as a human fingerprint!
They also gave their name to the Penguin Islands, which surprisingly were not named by James “Bird Island” Cook.
9. The Macaroni Penguin
Good penguin. Firstly, look at him:
THE MACARONI PENGUIN: FLY AS ALL HELL
Secondly, he is called the Macaroni Penguin for exactly the same reason that Yankee Doodle Dandy ‘stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni.’
Macaroni was a flamboyant style of dress in 18th-century England, and English sailors thought the penguin looked like a young fancy lad who had glued feathers all over his hat and then gone straight into “check me out ladies” mode.
And they called it Macaroni.
Side note: this is not why macaroni pasta is called that. I don’t know why macaroni pasta is called that. What is this, Pasta Facts?
Ok fine it’s from an ancient Greek word that meant ‘barley broth’ and I hope you’re happy because that pasta fact was not very good. Back to the penguins!
10. The Magellanic Penguin
The penguin of romance! He lives in South America and sticks with the same penguin partner year after year.
I feel like the Magellanic Penguin deserves some credit for this because everyone is all “oh hey wow look at the emperor penguin, look how the man penguin waits for the lady penguin, look how they coparent, look how they March, hooo boy what a penguin,” but did you know only about 15% of emperor penguin relationships carry on the next year?
Hmph. All hail the faithful Magellanic P.
WHY DO BIRDS SUDDENLY APPEAR / EVERY TIME YOU ARE NEAR?
JUST LIKE ME, THEY LONG TO BE, CLOSE TO YOU
ALSO WE ARE ALL BIRDS HERE
Also, he likes to eat jellyfish; originally people thought he just ate them sometimes by accident but no, he shows a preference.
We don’t know why, we haven’t asked him.
11. The Humboldt Penguin
This is the penguin that escaped from the Tokyo Sea Life Park!
In 2012, a courageous and freedom-loving Humboldt penguin (known only by his zoo number, which was 337), escaped the Tokyo Sea Life Park and fled to Tokyo Bay. During his escape, 337 scaled a four-metre wall and made it through a barbed-wire fence.
Prison – sorry I mean zoo – officials said he would never survive in the bay.
But he did!
For 82 days, until he was recaptured. But some say to this day he remains vigilant, marking the days on the wall of his enclosure, spending his nights digging a tiny penguin tunnel.
HELPED BY HIS ONLY FRIEND ON THE INSIDE, CLINT EASTWOOD.
12. The White-Flippered Penguin
There appear to be absolutely no interesting facts specific to this penguin. Thank goodness. This is over 1,000 penguin words already.
But look how cute it is!
AND HOW FULLY IT KNOWS IT!
UPDATE: I mentioned this boring-ass penguin to my mother and she said, “There is an interesting fact about him! One of those bit your sister once.”
What a good penguin.
13. The Yellow-Eyed Penguin is thought to be the oldest of all current penguins and oh boy does he look like an evil bastard:
THIS IS A PENGUIN WHO HAS SEEM SOME SHIT
ALSO I FEEL LIKE MAYBE WE PUT HIM ON OUR $5 NOTE OUT OF… FEAR?
He’s a New Zealand penguin and his name in te reo Maori is “Hoiho”, not to be confused with the word for ‘horse’ in te reo Maori, which is “hōiho”.
Pro tip for te reo Maori learners, so that you don’t make the same embarrassing mid-class mistake I did: it is very unlikely there is going to be a penguin featured in a children’s book about farm animals.
14. The Snares Penguin should have been identified as a new species quite a lot earlier than he actually was.
He stayed off the taxonomical grid a little longer than expected because after Frederick Wollaston Hutton picked a sample penguin up in 1874 he then attempted to draw a picture of it, during which process it was “lost at sea”.
Which I assume means he had propped the penguin up on the ship’s railing and turned away for a minute to sharpen a pencil and whoops! Over it went. Whether the penguin was alive at this point didn’t make it into the history books, but I like to think he was. It’s like Free Willy, but with more penguin. (And less whale.)
(Hutton was a New Zealand naturalist; in the first draft of this I said Hutton was ‘a naturist’, which is of course the polite word for nudist. Whether or not Hutton was a naturist naturalist is a fact that’s been lost to history).
“PUT SOME PANTS ON, FREDERICK” - THIS PENGUIN, PROBABLY
Hutton seems to have had a bad run of luck with hanging onto animals; in 1901 he gave a talk about New Zealand insects he’d recently discovered, which includes this delightful line:
“I saw […] a millipede on Auckland Islands. But, unfortunately, my foot slipped just as I was going to put it in a bottle and I could not find it again.”
15. The Royal Penguin
This penguin was scientifically named for Hermann Schlegel, who was an ornithologist (birds) and herpetologist (snakes). Weird combination. His father studied butterflies. Weird family combination.
Was the father disappointed with all the bird- and snake-goings-on of his unlepidopteral offspring?
Are you disappointed with me for that ridiculous word?
Anyway, to the penguin! These penguins were among the unfortunate species to be hunted for their oil, with a full penguin oil processing plant set up on Macquarie Island in the early 1900s.
Did you know each penguin yields about half a litre of oil? No? Well, now you do.
ALSO THE ONLY PENGUIN WITH A DISTINCT POST MALONE ENERGY
16. The Erect-Crested Penguin is the penguin which has proved my undoing. On this penguin, I am stumped and factless. He is a penguin about which very little is known and, frankly, it doesn’t seem like anyone is particularly interested to find out.
All we know about his is that he spends he winter at sea and is often described as ‘elusive’.
Damn you, you Scarlet Pimpernel of penguins. You Scarlet Penguinel.
There is no picture of him as I do not feel like it and probably couldn’t find one anyway.
17. The Southern, Eastern, and Northern Rockhopper Penguins
I am treating these as all one penguin because frankly they all seem to be pretty similar penguins and, as you may have noticed, I am becoming ever so slightly penguined out.
“OH GOOD,” I HEAR YOU SAY, “THAT PENGUIN.”
They are called ‘rockhopper penguins’ because they hop from rock to rock, and that is a truly terrible penguin fact.
However! They only grow to a maximum of 20 inches tall - making them as tall as the length of an average newborn baby. Following on from learning this I asked my mother some Quick Questions and determined that actually a rockhopper penguin is roughly the same length as a newborn me.
But only half the weight! You could tie two Rockhopper Penguins together lengthways and pretty much have a doublepenguin the size of me as a baby.
And that, as far as I’m concerned, is the perfect penguin fact to bring this post to a close.
17. Except it isn’t because I forgot about The Galápagos Penguin, who is our actual final penguin!
The Galápagos is equatorial and far too warm for a penguin, so in response the G.P. has come up with some excellent adaptations:
- They pant like a dog! The evaporation cools down their throat and airways.
- They cram their eggs and chicks deep inside cracks in rocks, to keep them out of the sun!
- They use their flippers as inbuilt penguin parasols, to shade their feet!
“Ah,” I hear you say, “Sounds like these penguins have got it sorted.”
…Well. No. They are the most endangered penguin there is.
But there are still 1,000 breeding pairs left!
YOLO!
And with that we are, mercifully, at the end of the penguin facts.
I feel confident that I have equipped both of us with all the penguinformation we will ever need for the rest of our lifetimes!
Now go forth and share your new knowledge with the world, and may Brigadier Sir Nils Olav III smile upon you.