Emperor Penguins Curiosities

- The Emperor Penguin may stay up to about 20 minutes submerged without breathing.

- The breeding season is a noisy bustling time for all penguins. Males usually arrive at the colony first and set about finding the place where they nested the year before.

The black –and – white “suit” of a penguin is more than just cute. It helps to hide the penguin from predators when it is swimming in the ocean. When a penguin is swimming on the ocean surface, its white underside makes it hard for Leopard seals or other predator below the penguin to see it. The white underside blends with the bright light coming from above.

- The normal swimming speed of most penguins is about 15 miles per hour. This is equal to the speed of the fastest human runner and four times faster than the fastest human swimmer. Penguins swim about as fast as the bottlenose dolphins that many people have seen streaking around pools at oceanariums.

- Most people think that all penguins walk the same way, by waddling slowly along. But each penguin species has its own way of walking.

- The Emperor penguins will even care for the chicks that do not belong to them. If a emperor chick is left alone for a short time by its parents, another adult or an older chick will keep it warm until the parents returns.
 
 - If an Emperor hatches before its mother has returned from fishing, the dad can feed it for a while with a cordlike substance he produces.

Male Emperor Penguins do not eat for the two months they are incubating their egg. They may lose half their body weighs in this period while the females are feeding at sea.

Emperor Penguin egg -   12x8cm -  vaguely pear-shaped.