How can penguins survive in antarctica

Some prey items are more important than others. One of the most frequently eaten prey species is the Antarctic silverfish Pleuragramma antarcticum. They also eat other fish, Antarctic krill and some species of squid. Most prey items are small. Since they are very cold when ingested, their small size makes it easier to bring food up to body temperature to digest it. An adult penguin eats 2—3kg per day. When they need to fatten up before a moult or at the start of the breeding season, they can eat as much as 6kg per day.

Breeding adults have to fill up their stomachs before they return to the colony. They need to feed their chicks and the colonies are often a long way from the fishing grounds. A chick needs about 42kg of food from each parent. Emperor penguins have to face freezing conditions including katabatic winds that blow off the polar plateau and intensify the cold. To keep warm, the males close ranks to share their warmth.

When carrying their incubation fat, emperors are about as large around the chest as an average man. On very cold days, as many as 10 of them pack into every square metre of a huddle. In the huddle, individuals seem to temporarily lose their identity, and the group takes on the appearance and behaviour of a single living entity. The warmer they are, the longer their fat lasts.

On a social level, huddling behaviour is an extraordinary act of co-operation in the face of common hardship. Emperors take this to an extreme taking turns to occupy the warmest and coldest positions in the huddle. On windy days, those on the windward edge feel the cold more than those in the centre and down-wind. One by one they peel off the mob and shuffle, egg on feet, down the flanks of the huddle to join it again on the leeward side.

They follow one another in a continuous procession, passing through the warm centre of the huddle and eventually returning back to the windward edge. Due to this constant circulation, the huddle gradually moves downwind. During a hour blizzard, the huddle may shift as much as metres. Why live in Antarctica? How many people? Chinstrap penguins are named for the narrow black band under their heads. The largest of the penguin species, emperor penguins breed during the worst weather conditions on earth.

King penguins are the second largest penguin and are close relatives of the emperor penguin. Macaroni penguins have a circumpolar distribution, generally on sub-Antarctic islands. Southern rockhopper penguins. Southern rockhopper penguins are the smallest of the crested penguins. Northern rockhopper penguins. I teach computers at The Granville School and St. John's Primary School in Sevenoaks Kent. Animal Adaptations and Survival by Mandy Barrow.

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Homework Index. Desert Tortoise. Fennec Fox. Saguaro Cactus. Polar Bears. Arctic Conditions Animals of the Arctic have many adaptations to help them survive in often inhospitable climate. Penguins Some Penguins live in the Antarctic, where it is extremely cold, and the water temperatures never rise above freezing.