Are penguins only in Antarctica?
The Galapagos penguin is one of the few species that are adapted to tropical waters, while the others are the Magellanic penguin and the African penguin - both of which live mainly in tropical regions.
Are there penguins in the Arctic? And, as the title of this article suggests, the answer is a resounding “no.” However, more than a few people believe that these black and white birds—along with the Galapagos bear, the only bear to call Earth home—are roaming the North Pole, playing with polar bears and Santa Claus.
There are 18 to 20 species of penguins today, and all but one live south of the equator. The exception is the Galapagos penguin, which lives in the Galapagos Islands, a famous wildlife sanctuary in the Pacific Ocean located about 560 miles south of the coast of Ecuador and close to the equator (but kept warm by the Humboldt Current). That means the archipelagic penguin is swimming north—but only rarely.
Most penguin species live in the cold and subtropical waters of Antarctica, but - and this may come as a surprise - only two penguin species are completely restricted to Antarctica: the Adélie penguin and the emperor penguin, the second largest penguin. Home to a variety of penguin species are New Zealand and the world's southernmost islands.
In fact, the tropical seas of Oceania in the region of New Zealand and Australia are considered the birthplace of modern penguins, which arrived on the continent about 20 million years ago (they are descended from distant reptilian ancestors). From this temperate zone, penguins spread southward into the shallow waters of the South Atlantic and Antarctica, and further south into the tropics and eventually subtropics.
These expansions, as well as subsequent species divergences, can be attributed to the formation of major ocean currents, including the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, aka the Westerly Wind, which flows through the northern part of the Southern Ocean and helps to isolate the polar region of Antarctica. The condition of sea ice in the Southern Ocean during glacial and ice ages certainly affects penguins as well, including giving them a stepping stone to, for example, the waters of South America.
And the aforementioned warm Humboldt Current, which flows north toward the Americas, and the similar Benguela River off South Africa also likely play a role in penguins’ northward migration to the tropics, as their warm currents—and the fertile waters associated with them—provide ideal tropical habitat for marine creatures.
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