[Wordly L5] 7. Birds in Tuxedos - Sihyun

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What is a bird? A creature that flies, of course. And yet, penguins are birds, but they cannot fly. Their wings are too feeble to lift them off the ground. This was not always so. Scientists believe that penguins once flew just like other birds. At some time in the remote past, they migrated to Antarctica. That is the frozen land that surrounds the South Pole. The ice sheet there is two miles thick in places. The temperature varies between zero in summer and negative seventy degrees in winter. It is possible that penguins were the only creatures that could survive in such a harsh climate. Without enemies, they would have no need to use their wings, as other birds do, to escape attacks. Gradually, they would have lost the ability to fly.

 

Over many thousands of years, the wings of penguins became smaller and more rigid. To compensate for the loss, it seems, they became excellent swimmers. They use their wings as flippers. Their webbed feet help guide them through the water. They can dive to depths of seventy feet and often leap high out of the water for a breath of air. On land, they waddle awkwardly or slide along the ice on their stomachs. But under water they glide gracefully and effortlessly. Penguins spend a lot of time in the sea in a never-ending search for fish, lobsters, crabs, and shrimp. These foods make up a substantial part of their diet.

 

There are several different kinds of penguins. The smallest is no bigger than a duck. The largest, called the Emperor penguin, is four feet tall and weighs up to ninety pounds. In addition to the shores of Antarctica, penguins make their homes farther north. They live on the coasts of South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand, or on the Pacific coast of South America.

 

Each year for several months, penguins come to land to make nests and lay their eggs. Along the shores of Antarctica, where no plants grow, the penguins gather stones for their nests. Females deposit the eggs, chalky white in color and usually no more than two, on the nest. Emperor penguins do not build nests. Instead, after an egg is laid, the male penguin holds it on his feet under a fold of stomach skin. This keeps the egg warm. The female Emperor penguin returns to the frigid waters to hunt for food for her family.

 

For two months, the baby penguins develop in the eggs. All that time the male Emperor penguins huddle close together in colonies of up to half a million birds so that they can keep warm. A solitary penguin would soon lose its body heat and die in the freezing cold of the long Antarctic night. When the baby penguins break out of the shells, they are unable to see and are quite helpless. For several months they have to be fed by their parents before they are ready to take to the water to find their own food.

 

On land penguins are unlikely to be mistaken for any other kind of bird. With black feathers covering their backs and snowy white feathers running up their fronts, they resemble very short men wearing formal dress. Their appearance, combined with the way they walk, makes them look slightly comical. Perhaps this explains in part why we humans find them such fascinating creatures.