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Gus is an emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) who made international headlines in 2024 as the first of his species recorded in Australia.Gus's journey of over 3,500 kilometers (2,200 miles) from Antarctica to Ocean Beach, Western Australia, captured the attention of scientists, wildlife enthusiasts, and the general public.
They are capable of reaching speeds up to 36 km (about 22 miles) per hour while searching for food or escaping from predators. They are also able to dive to depths of 170–200 meters (about 560–660 feet). [46] The small penguins do not usually dive deep; they catch their prey near the surface in dives that normally last only one or two minutes.
Magellanic penguins can live up to 25 years in the wild, but as much as 30 years in captivity. Captain Eo, a male Magellanic penguin at the San Francisco Zoo, died in 2022 at the age of 40. [4] Young birds usually have a blotched pattern on their feet, which fades as they grow up into adulthood.
Both male and female emperor penguins forage for food up to 500 km (310 mi) from colonies while collecting food to feed chicks, covering 82–1,454 km (51–903 mi) per individual per trip. A male returning to the sea after incubation heads directly out to areas of permanent open water, known as polynyas, around 100 km (62 mi) from the colony.
The king penguin feeds its chicks by eating fish, digesting it slightly, and regurgitating the food into the chick's mouth. Because of their large size, king penguin chicks take 14–16 months before they are ready to go to sea. This is markedly different from smaller penguins, who rear their chicks through a single summer when food is plentiful.
The fledged chicks then go to sea on their own, where they spend the next one to nearly two years. They then return to their natal colony to moult into adult plumage. [33] When penguins moult, they are unable to forage in the sea as their new feathers are not yet waterproof; therefore, they fast over the entire moulting period. [33]
Chinstrap penguin. Penguins are birds in the family Spheniscidae in the monotypic order Sphenisciformes. [1] They inhabit high-productivity marine habitats, almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere; the only species to occur north of the Equator is the Galapagos penguin.
The current wild population is composed of roughly 23,800 mature individuals and is declining. [1] It is a migrant species. [5] Humboldt penguins nest on islands and rocky coasts, burrowing holes in guano and sometimes using scrapes or caves. In South America the Humboldt penguin is found only along the Pacific coast, and the range of the ...