Can penguins fly?
No, penguins cannot fly through the air. Their wings evolved into stiff flippers, and they use them to fly underwater, swimming fast to catch fish and squid.
Penguins descend from flying birds, but over millions of years their wings became short, flat and strong. Their bones are solid and heavy rather than hollow like most birds' bones, which helps them dive instead of float. In the water, they flap their flippers much like other birds flap their wings in the air.
Gentoo penguins are the fastest swimmers, reaching about 35 km/h (22 mph). Emperor penguins can dive more than 500 meters deep and stay underwater for over 20 minutes. Some penguins also leap out of the water, a move called porpoising, to breathe without slowing down.
Where penguins live
There are about 18 species of penguins, and almost all live in the Southern Hemisphere. Only the Galápagos penguin lives near the equator, and none live at the North Pole. On land they waddle or slide on their bellies, a technique called tobogganing.
Did You Know?
The emperor penguin is the largest species, standing over a meter tall, and the little penguin of Australia and New Zealand is the smallest, at about 30 centimeters. Penguins drink seawater and remove the extra salt through a special gland above their eyes.