To our knowledge there are no studies concerning UV-B effects on penguins. As their eyes are exposed to a lot of UV due to the high reflectivity of snow and a marked enhancement during the ozone hole, investigation into the impact on penguins is desirable. The fact that penguins are visual predators, eating krill or fish in the water column, would make any eye damage an important issue for survival.

No. This flightless, aquatic bird is native to the Southern Circumpolar Region, only a short 10,000 miles to the south.

No. Penguins, like all other birds, do not have teeth. The chicks do have an egg tooth, but this is not a real tooth, but rather a sharp bump on the top surface of the bill which is used to break the egg when hatching. Penguins do have rearward-pointing, tooth-like barbs on the tongue and roof of the mouth. These are not used for chewing, but instead assist in the swallowing of their slippery prey.

Yes, penguin ears are in the same place as ours. The only difference is that they have no external ear (the fleshy bit that sticks out the side of your head) and that the opening is covered by feathers.

CI: You would have to be fluent in Penguinese to understand the subtle inflections that differentiate their names. To human ears, they are all named "Waark".

Most species have an average life expectancy of about 10 years, although some individuals occasionally live for up to 25 years. The graph to the right plots the age of flipper-banded yellow-eyed penguins at either death or the last live recovery. 40% of all chicks banded are never recovered and are presumed dead.

The strategy of having a dark dorsal (upper) surface and a white ventral (lower) surface is one that has been adopted by many marine animals. Predators looking down see the penguin as a dark shape on a dark background and predators looking up see a light shape on a light background - the most effective camoflage for an animal that spends most of its time at or near the surface.

Penguins store food in their stomachs and it is regurgitated to the chicks. The adults do not feed each other and may stay ahore without feeding for many days.

Leave: the Gentoo penguins start to leave O'Higgins when the sea ice starts to build. This date differs each year. 2004 the last Gentoos were seen in early May. The main brood season is from November until February, but even this can differ from year to year.

Many, many years ago, I was a college student. My first college roommate had this "inspirational" poster of two penguins snuggling on her part of the wall. One day, right after roomie #1 first hangs said poster, my best friend at the time walked into my dorm room and asked me, "Why the fuck is there a pair of gay penguins hanging on your wall?" Of course they're gay! All penguins are gay! You can tell because of the purple background on the poster." For my second semester, I moved. New roomie.

SeaWorld San Diego has emperor, king, Adélie, Gentoo, macaroni, Magellanic, and Humboldt penguins. SeaWorld Orlando has king, Adélie, Gentoo, rockhopper, and Magellanic penguins. SeaWorld San Antonio has king, Gentoo, chinstrap, rockhopper, and Magellanic penguins.

Yes, we have been extremely successful with breeding all species of penguins that we have at SeaWorld.

Some things look a lot scarier in photographs than they are in real life. The Kjeragbolten is not one of them.

At the present time, the Los Angeles Zoo does not have the facilities to care for either penguins or pandas, but we do add new species to our collection regularly. Please check the animal residents page frequently for new additions!

No, these penguins do not meditate and this wall is no bulletin board for them. This place at the wall/foundation is a very popular brood place for the Gentoos. There might be at least two important reasons: The foundation of the antenna gives very good shelter from the roaring storms and blizzards from southerly (south is to the left of the webcam pic), south-westerly and south-easterly directions.

Answer: I contacted a zoo where they have a collection of penguins to confirm my thoughts on this question. The simple answer is yes, penguins do have jointed legs. Although you may not be able to see them, perhaps because of the folds of abdominal skin that penguins often have, they do have 'knee' joints. The way in which penguins walk is related to a number of factors. Their legs are relatively short and they are set far back on their bodies.

Actually, yes there is. The penguin is Fleetwood Mac's 'mascott', or symbol. Back when John and Christine were first married, they lived near London Zoo. John was fascinated with the penguin population there, and used to spend hours watching and photographing them. A few years later he went on to get one tattooed on his right arm (visible on The Chain Box Set), and also chose to use one of his photos of a penguin on the album Future Games instead of a picture of himself.