Did You Know?
- The King Penguin is the second largest penguin in the world – the Emperor Penguin has them beat by a tiny smidgeon
- Unlike other predators living of the Antarctic coast, this Penguin relies less on krill and crustaceans and more on fish and squid (not a bad diet, if you like seafood)
- For once, there is a good news story surrounding penguin populations. Currently the King Penguin population is sitting around 2.23 million pairs is still increasing on a regular basis
The King Penguin is How Big?
You can’t be the second largest penguin in the world and not have some size to you, right? Of course not, the King Penguin weighs about 16 kg (36 lbs) and grow to about 90 cm (3 ft) tall. Sure this doesn’t sound very large compared to other animals but for a bird…this is quite big. Of course this poses a very important question. Where does a 3 foot tall penguin find such an adorable tuxedo? Well, where do you find anything these days? At the biggest online store! Believe it or not, Amazon Sells Tuxedos
Dress Warm When You Live In Antarctica
This isn’t any ordinary tuxedo that the King Penguins is sporting. In fact, outfit has four layers of feathers acting as insulation with the outer layer being coated in oil, which essentially waterproofs their entire wardrobe (a waterproof tux…cool). Believe it or not, this particular penguin has roughly 70 feathers for every square inch of body space. That is a ton of feathers, which must make preening very time consuming. When a King Penguin is born they don’t have a full suit as they are missing the outer, oily layer. This means that immature penguins are not able to play around in the water…or more importantly, they are not allowed to go fishing for food. Instead, these anxious penguin chicks wait on the shoreline until their down feathers fall off – and that is when the real fun begins!
