Penguins leave Antarctica after summer, but where they go in winter has been a mystery for many years. But thanks to a tiny location device, scientists have discovered that macaroni penguins do not go sunbathing – they spend winter feeding in the cold southern oceans.
While we were writing we ran into the question “Where do penguins fly to in the winter?”.
For example, among the two subspecies of the gentoo penguins ( Pygoscelis papua), one of them, the northern, usually remain in the colony during the whole year, while the southern, that nests in the Antarctic Peninsula, has to travel to the North during the harsh winters. Penguins cross the ice.
To the casual observer, the birds appear to just stand around on the ice and endure their frigid world. A longer look, though, reveals that penguins often form tight groups, especially when temperatures plummet.
Penguins live in some of the world’s most frigid areas and their bodies are equipped to help them survive brutal wind gusts and snowfall. During the winter, penguins will huddle together in groups and move along in them as a way to help conserve heat. This also works to provide them with stability when strong winds blow through.
Are penguins only found in cold climates?
Although almost all penguin species are native to the Southern Hemisphere, they are not found only in cold climates, such as Antarctica . In fact, only a few species of penguin live so far south.
This is what our research found. the northernmost species, the Galápagos penguin, lives near the equator on the Galápagos Islands. A colony of Adélie penguins that nests near Cape Royds, Antarctica is the southernmost species.
Why do penguins migrate north?
As the cold becomes unbearable and the food scarce, penguins have no choice but use their fins and travel north. In the case of the Aptenodytes forsteri, their migration meets the need to reach nesting areas in the south, places that they visit year after year to mate and lay their eggs.
The Adélie penguins of the Ross Sea travel about 13,000-17,600 kilometers annually to their breeding colonies, while some Magellanic penguins ( Spheniscus magellanicus) can move about 4,828 kilometers. The migration can be walking or swimming, but the emperor penguins only have their legs and their bellies to march on the ice and snow.