Penguins, courtesy of Wikipedia

Penguins (order Sphenisciformes, family Spheniscidae) are a group of aquatic, flightless birds living almost exclusively in the southern hemisphere, especially in Antarctica. Highly adapted for life in the water, penguins have countershaded dark and white plumage, and their wings have become flippers. Most penguins feed on krill, fish, squid, and other forms of sealife caught while swimming underwater. They spend about half of their lives on land and half in the oceans.

Although 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. Several species are found in the temperate zone, and one species, the Galápagos Penguin, lives near the equator.

The largest living species is the Emperor Penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri): adults average about 1.1 m (3 ft 7 in) tall and weigh 35 kg (75 lb) or more. The smallest penguin species is the Little Blue Penguin (Eudyptula minor), also known as the Fairy Penguin, which stands around 40 cm tall (16 in) and weighs 1 kg (2.2 lb). Among extant penguins, larger penguins inhabit colder regions, while smaller penguins are generally found in temperate or even tropical climates (see also Bergmann's Rule). Some prehistoric species attained enormous sizes, becoming as tall or as heavy as an adult human. These were not restricted to Antarctic regions; on the contrary, subantarctic regions harboured high diversity, and at least one giant penguin occurred in a region not quite 2,000 km south of the equator 35 mya, in a climate decidedly warmer than today. (courtesy of Wikipedia)

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Getting to Know the Emperor Penguins

Young Emperor Penguins; photo credit below.
"Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice," wrote Anton Chekhov. So today, I'm adding some extra knowledge to my practice of penguinistics. I want to be able to name the kinds of penguins. The darling photo here, taken by Martha de Jong-Lantink, convinced me that I might as well start with Emperor Penguins; here's a page from Fotopedia that the photo illustrates. Of course, these are youngsters; adult Emperor Penguins have pale yellow chests and bright yellow ear patches, like this (this photo is also by de Jong-Lantink):
Emperor Penguin family (photo credit above).

Emperor Penguins grow to about 4 feet in height, and weigh 50 to 100 pounds.


Now, a very different sort of knowledge of the self. Notice the difference in reaction to the images of penguins when they are small and "cuddly" or tall and "sharp-beaked"? Author David G. Myers in his book Exploring Psychology points out that "We perceive adults with childlike facial features (round face, large forehead, small chin, large eyes) as having childlike warmth, submissiveness, and naiveté" (p. 252). Taking this even further, an article in the online Frieze Magazine, on robot design, notes that "A child-like appearance inspires nurturing." 

In other words, we look at young penguins and we're inspired to ask, "How can we help you?"

I'm intrigued as I notice that caring about these penguins is apparently hard-wired into how we see the world.
Posted by Beth Kanell at 12:31 PM

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