Penguins are at home in the cold waters of the Antarctic, in the land of ice and snow. You would never expect to see a penguin species living on a tropical island.
One species does that on the Galapagos islands in Ecuador. While it can stand the hot temperatures on land, it still depends on cold ocean currents to survive.
Galapagos penguins are seabirds. This is the only kind of penguins living on the latitude of the equator. True to its name, the Galapagos penguin lives only on the Galapagos islands. They don’t migrate; they stay in the area around the islands all their lives. More than 90 percent live on the islands of Fernandina and Isabella.
The Galapagos penguins are the third smallest species of penguins in the world. They are covered in black, white and grey feathers. They usually weigh 2.5 kilograms and they are 49 cm long. They have a lifespan of 15 to 20 years.
During the day, the penguins retreat to the water for foraging trips. They are very fast swimmers. At night they return to the ground to sleep in burrows.
They usually eat small fish such as sardines and mullet, and crustaceans.
Galapagos penguins form couples that last for a lifetime. The couples frequently tap their partners with their bill as a way of showing affection and developing a stronger relationship.
We should protect Galapagos penguins. They become endangered. There are only 1,800 of these penguins.
Karina, thank you very much for your interesting project. You are a great lover of wildlife. Isn’t it amazing that there are so many wonderful creatures on our planet?
I did not even know that there were so few Galapagos penguins. We must protect them because they may disappear forever, and we will never see these original creatures.