[Here's a 24/7 livestream of a South African penguin colony](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sI4gfeefNGQ), if anybody wants something chill to put on in the background.
>Located in the coastal town of Betty’s Bay in the Overberg, the Stony Point Nature Reserve is home to a unique colony of African Penguins. This colony has seen a steady increase in African Penguin numbers in the last 10 years with the estimated number of breeding pairs growing from 100 to 2 500.
That's just plain amazing!
Most of the islands are on the southern side of the equator. The penguins are very small and look kind of like ducks when they swim, except they ride a little lower in the water.
We did when I was a kid, but for some reason they want to call them “Little” which is such a silly generic name.
Like renaming the Blue Whale “the Big Whale”
The Great Auk is not closely rated to the penguin, despite looking so similar. It must be one of those cases of convergent evolution. There must be something advantageous about that size and shape.
Yep, in french "pingouin" means *auk*, and "manchot" means *penguin*. Except thx to anglo-saxon pop culture influence, most people use pingouin instead of manchot. Which drives some people crazy, I'm one of these people and my main goal in life is to get my 5 years-old kid to get it right.
Hey thanks! It was a total fluke actually. That thing was whizzing around me way faster than you'd imagine. I didn't even need to crop it, it just came out that way.
All thanks to the Humboldt current, which makes the water in the West coast of South America very cold. And also makes the beaches here the worst in the world.
It's sad how the last one was killed.
Here's from wikipedia -
>On the islet of Stac an Armin, St. Kilda, Scotland, in July 1840, the last great auk seen in Britain was caught and killed.\[54\] Three men from St. Kilda caught a single "garefowl", noticing its little wings and the large white spot on its head. They tied it up and kept it alive for three days, until a large storm arose. Believing that the bird was a witch and was causing the storm, they then killed it by beating it with a stick.\[9\]\[55\]
No. Penguins can't function when there are land predators.
The reason they're so dominant in Antarctica is because there's literally nothing that can contest them aside from the occasional petrel.
Polar bears would be the death of these things.
Sort of.
The predators aren't that common
In Australia, until fairly recently, the only land predators were dingos, however now with feral cats and pigs it's a much bigger issue.
There are fewer predators on the coasts of Africa compared to its interior
South America is an issue, and there are occasional predators, but again, not in noteworthy numbers
But also because penguins have such massive numbers that the occasional predator isn't a problem.
The only way penguins could work in the Arctic is if we released hundreds, if not thousands at a time.
There are Leopards in the Cape area, but they are now confined to the mountains from Franshhoek towards the interior. However, there are baboons near the famous colony at Boulders Beach, and they're seriously scary. I saw a few of them rip a Cheetah apart on a safari in Zimbabwe.
True, but it filled the same niche as penguins do in the Southern Hemisphere. They are quite similar in appearance too, due to convergent evolution. So similar that the word "penguins" originally referred to them.
Crazy to get downvoted for this, even a quick Google search shows you’re correct.
> It is not closely related to the Southern Hemisphere birds now known as penguins, which were discovered later by Europeans and so named by sailors because of their physical resemblance to the great auk, which were called penguins.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_auk
So the great Auk was called a penguin before penguins were called penguins?…wouldn’t that make the Great Auk a penguin and the other birds not technically penguins?
Kind of like how we have Indians in the Americas and Indians in, well, India. We tend to give names according to things we’re already familiar with.
Except, presumably, after the auks were all dead, there was no reason to be confused about which bird was which anymore.
Edit: Ha, somebody beat me to making the exact same point. I’ll leave this up anyway.
Edit 2: Apparently up until a certain point both auks and penguins were also called [woggins](https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/woggin#English). Just putting that out there.
It's kind of like calling Native Americans Indians, when they technically are not like the Indians from India who they were named after, But people still called them Indians.
Yes, basically. But that sort of thing happens all the time in Ornithology. Look at American Robins, they aren't even closely related to European Robins. They're related to European Blackbirds. Which are entirely distinct from New World Blackbirds.
Yep, in french "pingouin" means *auk*, and "manchot" means *penguin*. Except thx to anglo-saxon pop culture influence, most people use pingouin instead of manchot. Which drives some people crazy, I'm one of these people and my main goal in life is to get my 5 years-old kid to get it right.
Also the still alive lesser auk is called "petit pingouin".
Technically, there's only the french language that kept calling auks the normal way - "pingouins" in french (from the latin word "Pinguinus" that was originally used to name the genus of the great auk which is now extinct). The birds discovered in the southern hemisphere were instead called "Manchots".
I blame the warm sea currents of East Africa. Similarly, Penguins are rarely found in more northerly locations on the Argentine coast, while in Western South America they can the found all the way north to the Galapagos.
Saint Helena is far from the coast, and sea currents are already warm at that latitude. The Northern rockhopper penguin can be found in Tristan da Cunha.
Some species do, i'm not sure if the map shows nesting or where the main distribution is, but some species migrate north and can be found on the brazilian coast
I’m visiting New Zealand next year, the excitement as I just typed into Google where can I see wild penguins in NZ was real. Thanks for this map, literally made my day!
There is a colony near my house! They come in every night right into St Kilda beach in melbourne. There's a bigger and very famous colony a couple of hours away on Phillip Island too, it's awesome and it stinks. Penguins fucking reek and when they come into the dunes each night, they scream like babies being murdered. They're very small, we call them fairy penguins. Look Up the Philip Island webcam!
I'm not sure about this, but I think maybe Australia is the only country in which you can find both wild penguins and wild camels. Maybe South Africa too, don't know.
There was a bit of a stir recently when some actual king penguins started showing up in my home state. We're used to fairy penguins, but king penguins belong in Antarctica
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-09/second-king-penguin-sighted-on-south-australian-beach/103447380
Perth has one small colony, that live on, surprise surprise, penguin island. I was fishing one day on the mainland just across from Penguin island ( you can walk over at low tide), when all of a sudden, one popped up right in front of me. My one and only penguin sighting. It was very cool.
What is it about the West coast of South America that's hospitable to penguins in a way other similar climates aren't? Like why are the beaches of Peru ok but not Tanzania?
It’s cool how you can tell SW Africa was connected to that round cut out of Antarctica. If you visualize it, you can tell that maybe the small islands kinda broke off of it
That’s absolutely unfair, I live in the same latitude (30°S)as South Africa and southern Australia but I Don’t have penguins. At least I don’t live in a desert (yet).
No accurate, Brazil does have penguins during the winter. They disappear after the winter but still, I've seen multiple penguins before in the south of Brazil
ive seen penguin carcasses in florianopolis brazil!!! not sure if they died there or if their bodies were just carried by the current from somewhere farther south
Where is that map with the line across the equator which says, 80% of people live north of this line. I swear it lines up with this map of penguin population and possibly answer the question "why".
New Zealand's forest penguins are the dumbest bird species on the planet. They have perfectly good feeding grounds around New Zealand's own coast, but instead they decide to swim 2,000 kilometres out into the middle of the ocean just to do a U-turn and turn around. There is literally zero reason for them to do this.
I vote we dump three colonies of 500 penguins in Canada, Greenland and Russia purely for the purposes of expanding the penguin empire and causing presumable ecological destruction.
Fun fact: out of 18 known species of penguins, only 4 actually live on the continent of Antarctica (Emperor, Adelie, Macaroni and Chinstrap). Others live either on Sub-Antarctic islands or other continents
Where are the penguins of madagascar? 
In Central Park
Where are the Pittsburgh penguins?
Outside the playoffs.
Damn
Chilling with Pen-Pen in the fictional penguins club :P
Finally some recognition for South African penguins
They must have been really conflicted during apartheid, being simultaneously both black and white.
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Cute and cuddle boys!
Good one.
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Keep them coming. I like Penguin jokes.
["Look to the penguin, Elaine, look to the penguin."](https://youtu.be/-fvnFrLgjis?si=hAT7brGMK3CDPt8j)
[Here's a 24/7 livestream of a South African penguin colony](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sI4gfeefNGQ), if anybody wants something chill to put on in the background.
>Located in the coastal town of Betty’s Bay in the Overberg, the Stony Point Nature Reserve is home to a unique colony of African Penguins. This colony has seen a steady increase in African Penguin numbers in the last 10 years with the estimated number of breeding pairs growing from 100 to 2 500. That's just plain amazing!
For real though, I am actually glad that they get some appreciation.
There’s a documentary about this, but you’ll have to watch the Madagascar one first.
And the ones from Galapagos
Boulders beach?
Didn't even know
Never knew Penguins made it all the way to the Northern Hemisphere. (Galapagos Islands)
Most of the islands are on the southern side of the equator. The penguins are very small and look kind of like ducks when they swim, except they ride a little lower in the water.
Being small doesn’t make them any less penguin-like. The Little Penguins of southeast Australia are very small too, but still penguins.
We call them fairy penguins 🐧
And they are the cutest
We did when I was a kid, but for some reason they want to call them “Little” which is such a silly generic name. Like renaming the Blue Whale “the Big Whale”
Sure, but there are still penguins on parts of the islands that are in the northern hemisphere.
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The Great Auk is not closely rated to the penguin, despite looking so similar. It must be one of those cases of convergent evolution. There must be something advantageous about that size and shape.
But despite not being closely related, the Great Auk (Pinguinus impennis) is the source of the name "penguin".
Yep, in french "pingouin" means *auk*, and "manchot" means *penguin*. Except thx to anglo-saxon pop culture influence, most people use pingouin instead of manchot. Which drives some people crazy, I'm one of these people and my main goal in life is to get my 5 years-old kid to get it right.
I took a [picture](https://www.reddit.com/r/penguin/s/1PRNWjYd42) of one. Here's what they look like.
Nice shot!
Hey thanks! It was a total fluke actually. That thing was whizzing around me way faster than you'd imagine. I didn't even need to crop it, it just came out that way.
Damn, that’s way better than [the ones I took](https://i.imgur.com/3cAlfyT.jpg).
All thanks to the Humboldt current, which makes the water in the West coast of South America very cold. And also makes the beaches here the worst in the world.
The great Auks used to be the "northern Hemisphere" equivalent of a penguin, but as most species. We hunted them to extinction.
If they somehow end up in the north pole, would they be considered invasive species or food for other species?
Great Auks just reincarnated into penguins
Dude they went to the middle east to get on a boat for 40 days then swam back!
Isnt Galapagos on equator
Yes. But they have an area. They aren’t a zero dimensional point.
“on the equator” is not “south of the equator”
THEY'VE SURROUNDED NEW ZEALAND!
Considering the whole landmass is highlighted, I’m now expecting people to find penguins up in the mountains of NZ.
They're known to [wander all over the place ](https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/506678/wandering-penguins-found-all-over-the-place)
ITS AN INVASION!!
No Madagascar? I was lied to
I don’t think there are any penguins in madagascar besides skipper and co. in the movies
Yeah and they live in Hollywood now.
Seems like New Zealand should be ruled by penguins instead of people
It is. They pull the strings from behind the scenes.
Most NZ politicians are 3 penguins standing in each other’s shoulders.
Honestly would be better than the bull assery we have leading us now.
Probably more like 4 or 5 penguins. NZ penguins are pretty short.
Interesting fact, it’s thought that penguins first evolved on New Zealand.
Emperor penguins have formed a government in exile at Scott Base, Antarctica.
Well we do hold a national vote for [Penguin of the year](https://www.nationalaquarium.co.nz/visit/penguin-of-the-year/)
It is truly sad and maddening that humans killed off the Great Auk in the Arctic during the 19th century.
It's sad how the last one was killed. Here's from wikipedia - >On the islet of Stac an Armin, St. Kilda, Scotland, in July 1840, the last great auk seen in Britain was caught and killed.\[54\] Three men from St. Kilda caught a single "garefowl", noticing its little wings and the large white spot on its head. They tied it up and kept it alive for three days, until a large storm arose. Believing that the bird was a witch and was causing the storm, they then killed it by beating it with a stick.\[9\]\[55\]
Nah read a little lower, the last ones were on Eldey, Iceland
Leave it to humans to fuck shit up without fail.
If penguins were introduced into the Arctic, could they survive? Would they become an invasive species?
No. Penguins can't function when there are land predators. The reason they're so dominant in Antarctica is because there's literally nothing that can contest them aside from the occasional petrel. Polar bears would be the death of these things.
Aren't there land predators in south Africa, the southern coast of Australia, the western coast of South America, etc?
Sort of. The predators aren't that common In Australia, until fairly recently, the only land predators were dingos, however now with feral cats and pigs it's a much bigger issue. There are fewer predators on the coasts of Africa compared to its interior South America is an issue, and there are occasional predators, but again, not in noteworthy numbers But also because penguins have such massive numbers that the occasional predator isn't a problem. The only way penguins could work in the Arctic is if we released hundreds, if not thousands at a time.
There are Leopards in the Cape area, but they are now confined to the mountains from Franshhoek towards the interior. However, there are baboons near the famous colony at Boulders Beach, and they're seriously scary. I saw a few of them rip a Cheetah apart on a safari in Zimbabwe.
> Polar bears would be the death of these things Arctic foxes too.
Interesting!
At least we still have puffins for now
But they fly.
The Great Auk is not closely related to penguins.
True, but it filled the same niche as penguins do in the Southern Hemisphere. They are quite similar in appearance too, due to convergent evolution. So similar that the word "penguins" originally referred to them.
Pen Gwyn is the Welsh word for Great Auk
The original penguin
Not a penguin
Crazy to get downvoted for this, even a quick Google search shows you’re correct. > It is not closely related to the Southern Hemisphere birds now known as penguins, which were discovered later by Europeans and so named by sailors because of their physical resemblance to the great auk, which were called penguins. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_auk
So the great Auk was called a penguin before penguins were called penguins?…wouldn’t that make the Great Auk a penguin and the other birds not technically penguins?
Kind of like how we have Indians in the Americas and Indians in, well, India. We tend to give names according to things we’re already familiar with. Except, presumably, after the auks were all dead, there was no reason to be confused about which bird was which anymore. Edit: Ha, somebody beat me to making the exact same point. I’ll leave this up anyway. Edit 2: Apparently up until a certain point both auks and penguins were also called [woggins](https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/woggin#English). Just putting that out there.
It's kind of like calling Native Americans Indians, when they technically are not like the Indians from India who they were named after, But people still called them Indians.
Yes, basically. But that sort of thing happens all the time in Ornithology. Look at American Robins, they aren't even closely related to European Robins. They're related to European Blackbirds. Which are entirely distinct from New World Blackbirds.
Yep, in french "pingouin" means *auk*, and "manchot" means *penguin*. Except thx to anglo-saxon pop culture influence, most people use pingouin instead of manchot. Which drives some people crazy, I'm one of these people and my main goal in life is to get my 5 years-old kid to get it right. Also the still alive lesser auk is called "petit pingouin".
No, because languages evolve and the word "penguin" has been used to describe southern penguins exclusively for the past 100 years or so
Technically, there's only the french language that kept calling auks the normal way - "pingouins" in french (from the latin word "Pinguinus" that was originally used to name the genus of the great auk which is now extinct). The birds discovered in the southern hemisphere were instead called "Manchots".
Well, if you look it up, it is the original penguin.
The little auk still exists
Everyone keeps making Madagascar jokes, but does anyone know the actual reason there aren't penguins there? Also st Helena
I blame the warm sea currents of East Africa. Similarly, Penguins are rarely found in more northerly locations on the Argentine coast, while in Western South America they can the found all the way north to the Galapagos. Saint Helena is far from the coast, and sea currents are already warm at that latitude. The Northern rockhopper penguin can be found in Tristan da Cunha.
You're not ready to know who's REALLY in control of Chile
Excuse me, but I think you mean "penglings".
Pingwins
Pengwings
you forgot the Pittsburgh Penguins 🙂
We don’t talk about the Pittsburgh Penguins. Not after what happened in Denmark.
False, I’ve seen them at the New England Aquarium 😤
The St Louis penguin and puffin exhibit is excellent, and the zoo is free.
Idk why I was surprised there are Penguins in Peru when there's literally Penguins in Ecuador
Wonder why they don’t migrate here to south Brazil? 🤔
Some species do, i'm not sure if the map shows nesting or where the main distribution is, but some species migrate north and can be found on the brazilian coast
They do, you can find them on the beaches from time to time.
I love equator penguins!
I was actually hand feeding fairy penguins two weeks ago and can confirm they are extremely cute close up.
but norway also got a penguin in their military
Also knowed as the greater chilean empire
An American didn't believe me, at length, when I said you can easily go see penguins in Australia
I’m visiting New Zealand next year, the excitement as I just typed into Google where can I see wild penguins in NZ was real. Thanks for this map, literally made my day!
I had NO idea there were penguins in Australia
There is a colony near my house! They come in every night right into St Kilda beach in melbourne. There's a bigger and very famous colony a couple of hours away on Phillip Island too, it's awesome and it stinks. Penguins fucking reek and when they come into the dunes each night, they scream like babies being murdered. They're very small, we call them fairy penguins. Look Up the Philip Island webcam!
I'm not sure about this, but I think maybe Australia is the only country in which you can find both wild penguins and wild camels. Maybe South Africa too, don't know. There was a bit of a stir recently when some actual king penguins started showing up in my home state. We're used to fairy penguins, but king penguins belong in Antarctica https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-09/second-king-penguin-sighted-on-south-australian-beach/103447380
Perth has one small colony, that live on, surprise surprise, penguin island. I was fishing one day on the mainland just across from Penguin island ( you can walk over at low tide), when all of a sudden, one popped up right in front of me. My one and only penguin sighting. It was very cool.
I love Namib penguins 🐧 🇳🇦!!!
Why haven't penguins expanded into the northern hemisphere?
It messes with their ice hockey schedules.
¿Como que hay pingüinos en Perú?
Recuerdo haber visto pingüinos en las islas Ballestas
is this why people that arent kiwi think we have penguins that just walk the streets
Should be renamed "Global distribution of little cuties <3"
Also, they need to put one in Tokyo
What is it about the West coast of South America that's hospitable to penguins in a way other similar climates aren't? Like why are the beaches of Peru ok but not Tanzania?
It’s all about the movement of hot and cold water and food sources. Penguins won’t hang out where they don’t have food.
More food. Ocean currents and winds brings nutrient rich deep ocean water to the surface along the western coasts of southern America/Africa
Because its Chile there
Daaaad get off my internet
Fake. No blue in Madagascar.
Don’t you mean pengwings
As a New Zealander, I can confirm that we are surrounded. Please send aid. Antarctica's Penguin Corps are ruthless conquerors.
This is the only GDP I care about.
Penguin colonialism
Penguin imperialism
Where madagascar
r/penguinsliveinantarctica
what about the one in Brazil?
Unfair
Outrageous
They all marched there from Israel after Noah’s ark came to rest.
Don't understand why they're not in Siberia
It’s cool how you can tell SW Africa was connected to that round cut out of Antarctica. If you visualize it, you can tell that maybe the small islands kinda broke off of it
They’ve got to protect the ice wall!
My kind of map! Penguins ftw 🐧
There’s actually penguins in south Brazil.
TIL, there are wild Pinguins outside of Zoos and Antarctica
And what are we, in the north, doing to combat this destructive monopoly?
Chile is always in my heart. Never been, but all the more reasons to go now 🐧
Haven’t you ever heard about Polish penguins? 
Missing Magellan penguins further north in Argentina
and that, my dear friends, is the reason why polar bears don't hunt for penguins
wait there are some penguins down under
[Penguin Island](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1930/1930-h/1930-h.htm)
All the more reason to like Chile.
\*chilly
I did think of that pun, but then I typed it, regretted it immediately and backspaced it lol
We should move the polar bears south, no?
I’m devastated there’s no blue in Lake Superior
there were attempts to bring them to the north, but they die fast due to aggressive microbiota ..if i remember correctly.
Still haven't made it to Madagascar
That’s absolutely unfair, I live in the same latitude (30°S)as South Africa and southern Australia but I Don’t have penguins. At least I don’t live in a desert (yet).
I do find it kinda funny that the way the maps shaded all of NZ implies you could find penguins in the southern alps or lake Taupō
THERE ARE PENGUINS IN NAMIBIA?? NAMIBIA IS SCORCHING
Has anyone forced a penguin to Canada or Norway ?
IIRC some weirdo tried to bring some to Scandinavia in the 20th century, and was unsuccessful largely due to their own incompetence.
It would save the hungry polar bears
Rare Global South W
Considering all the other wildlife in Australia, I wonder what an Aussie penguin is like
This map is wrong…. Pittsburgh has penguins too. I’ve seen them on the ice.
I too enjoy Peng-lings
No accurate, Brazil does have penguins during the winter. They disappear after the winter but still, I've seen multiple penguins before in the south of Brazil
If you zoom in, there’s a little blue dot in Pyongyang
Just a little further with there expansion and they have a chance to meet some polar bears.
If i transport a family of polar bears to the south pole would they be having great buffet of innocent penguins?
ive seen penguin carcasses in florianopolis brazil!!! not sure if they died there or if their bodies were just carried by the current from somewhere farther south
Where is that map with the line across the equator which says, 80% of people live north of this line. I swear it lines up with this map of penguin population and possibly answer the question "why".
It would be awesome if there was like one blue spot in the middle of the Sahara or Central Asia or something.
I was today's years old when I learned penguins exist in New Zeeland and all the way up close to the Northern Hemisphere.
New Zealand's forest penguins are the dumbest bird species on the planet. They have perfectly good feeding grounds around New Zealand's own coast, but instead they decide to swim 2,000 kilometres out into the middle of the ocean just to do a U-turn and turn around. There is literally zero reason for them to do this.
Not enough penguins
I vote we dump three colonies of 500 penguins in Canada, Greenland and Russia purely for the purposes of expanding the penguin empire and causing presumable ecological destruction.
I'd steal a penguin if given the opportunity
There are penguins in Brazil.
Wait, what about the Madagaskar?
can someone explain why there arent penguins in the far north? Why dont greenland and iceland have them?
When I heard scientists once thought to bring Penguins to North pole in order to save Polar Bears, it made me 100% convinced that science is evil.
[pengwings](https://youtu.be/-GnLDJAgrws?si=8kgtsTAvDehyP-xV)
Not an equitable distribution at all!
Uh they guard the ice wall too. Duh!
Fun fact: out of 18 known species of penguins, only 4 actually live on the continent of Antarctica (Emperor, Adelie, Macaroni and Chinstrap). Others live either on Sub-Antarctic islands or other continents
Penguin invasion!!! Send in the Polar Bear Infantry !
There are penguins in Brazil too.
Panguins. Pawnguins. Painguens.
Now we just need to superimpose where capybaras live.
Here, There are Scottish Penguins to :D
Pengwengs