By Michael Dattolo

Penguins may be about as good at flying as a baked potato-but they can swim four times faster than the fastest human swimmer in the world. For birds, penguins are odd. They don’t fly, but they are warm-blooded animals that lay eggs and have feathers, making them a type of bird. Have you ever wondered why penguins are made like they are? Why do they have that funny black and white tuxedo-like coloring? How do they survive in temperatures so cold that tennis balls can’t even bounce?

1. Keeping Warm

On the ice of Antarctica, temperatures can drop to -50° Fahrenheit (-45° Celsius) or lower! Penguins are able to survive these crazy temperatures because of the way God designed their bodies. First, they have a thick layer of short, waterproof, tightly packed feathers to keep heat in. Under that, they have a layer of blubber to insulate them further. The penguin also has a fast metabolism, which gives it a low breathing rate, reducing heat loss through the lungs.

Still, when the wind comes howling and temperatures plummet, penguins must work together to stay warm. Scattered, shivering penguins race together and form a tight huddle-football style. Soon, huge masses of penguins are squeezing their bodies tightly together to keep warm.

The penguins in the center of the circle, blocked from the icy wind, are kept warm by the body heat of the other penguins. To ensure that the brave penguins on the perimeter don’t freeze to death, the inside ones, after being warmed by the plethora of blubber-balls around them, squirm their way to the outside to take their turn while the others warm up.

2. Safety

The penguin’s colors also help keep it safe from predators. On land, the penguin has no natural predators. But in the sea, they can fall prey to sharks, seals or killer whales.

Although penguins can dive hundreds of feet (and hold their breath for minutes), to stay safe, they often just cruise face down along the top of the ocean, paddling gently with their flippers. The light from the sun reflects off the water and makes everything look white from below, so the penguin’s white belly makes it virtually invisible. From above, seals or other animals have a hard time discerning between the murky water and the black penguin black. Thus the penguin stays camouflaged from all angles!

3. Cool Colors

On occasions of less extreme temperature drops, penguins simply turn their backs to the sun to warm up. The black color on their backsides absorbs much of the heat from the sun. On the other hand, at the peak of summer (December in Antarctica), penguins actually start feeling like they are in an oven. To stay cool, penguins flop down onto their back. Their shiny white bellies reflect the sun’s heat away from their body and keep them cool!

4. Making Babies

Penguins are unique in almost everything, and reproduction is no exception. The biggest penguin species, the Emperor, has one of the strangest birth cycles.
First, the female lays the egg-right onto her mate’s feet! There, the fat below the male’s belly rests on the egg, incubating it.

Immediately, the female sprints to the ocean. It often takes several days just to get there. Upon arriving, she will tirelessly swim up to 62 miles (100 km) in search of food to bring the baby penguin when it hatches. She usually doesn’t return for two months. During that time, the male penguin will faithfully stand still-he does not move or eat until the chick has hatched. He will lose one third to one half of his body weight in the process.

When the female finally returns, she frantically makes calls repeatedly, having forgotten exactly where her mate is. Excited for good reason, the male will blurt out loud calls in reply. They keep calling back and forth until the female finds her faithful mate.

Once the egg hatches, she regurgitates her food to feed to the new chick. It’s then the male’s turn to hunt. He lowers his head and runs at high penguin speed (which is about 3 miles per hour, and still looks like a waddle) for the ocean. Six weeks later, he will return with more food for the chick. While he is gone, the mother feeds the infant with her reserves.

Once the male gets back, it’s only about another week before the chick is big enough to walk around on its own, and start hanging out with other chicks. The male and female share the responsibility of feeding their baby until it’s old enough to survive on its own in summer.

Then the male and female will go their separate ways until the next winter, when they will find each other and mate again-penguins mate for life.

Proof Positive

Though they may look like the laughingstock of birds, and act a little on the strange side, penguins are uniquely created to survive in their frigid environment.

Lucky? I don’t think so. Evolving step by step would have never worked. Penguins could not survive without all of their uniquely created adaptations. Evolution is defied by the marvel of God’s creation!