These penguins can survive on the equator because their breeding biology is adapted to the unpredictable upwelling of productive, nutrient-rich water in the Galapagos archipelago. During breeding, they shed their feathers around their eyes and bill so they can lose heat, and they stand with their feet in the shade to avoid the hot black lava.
Penguins have no sweat glands, so when they get hot, they pant to keep cool or jump into the water. They seek shade to lay their eggs and raise their chicks. Lava tubes and crevices just above the highest tides make good nest sites.
The current population is less than half of what it was in the early 1970s, with somewhere between 1,500 and 4,700 individuals. The population of Galapagos penguins has not recovered because of several severe El NiƱos in the 1980s and 1990s and the introduction by whalers of predators like rats and cats to the islands.
* Scientific contributor:Prof. Dee Boursma, University of Washington, USA
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