COVER STORY: PENGUINS
PENGUINS are among the world's most iconic birds. Yet outside of zoos they are mostly seen by a select few, since their natural habitats are in the windswept, isolated, rocky islands of the southern seas and oceans or on the Antarctic sea ice. All species of penguin apart from the Galapagos penguin (Spheniscus mendiculus) are restricted to the Southern Hemisphere.
The name penguin derives from their similarity to another flightless species: the unrelated and extinct great auk (Pinguinus impennis). Antarctica was sometimes called “Pinguinus”, although only the emperor (Aptenodytes forsteri), chinstrap (Pygoscelis antarcticus) and Adélie penguin (P. adeliae) live exclusively around that continent. Even emperor penguins are vagrants to New Zealand and South American waters.
Four species, including the king penguin live on islands off the coast of South America. Another four, which is often exhibited in zoos (and known more appropriately as the African penguin; other species can also vocalise like a donkey), inhabits the inshore islands of South Africa and has a few colonies on the mainland.
