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Penguins (order Sphenisciformes, family Spheniscidae) are a group of aquatic, flightless birds living almost exclusively in the southern hemisphere, especially in Antarctica. Highly adapted for life in the water, penguins have countershaded dark and white plumage, and their wings have become flippers. Most penguins feed on krill, fish, squid, and other forms of sealife caught while swimming underwater. They spend about half of their life on land and half in the oceans.
Although all penguin species are native to the southern hemisphere, they are not found only in cold climates, such as Antarctica. In fact, only a few species of penguin live so far south. Several species are found in the temperate zone, and one species, the Galápagos Penguin, lives near the equator.
<img src=”http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/56/McMurdo-Pinguine.jpeg/220px-McMurdo-Pinguine.jpeg” alt=”penguin” /Penguins have a thick layer of insulating feathers that keep them warm in water (heat loss in water is much greater than in air). The Emperor penguin (the largest penguin) has the largest body mass of all penguins, which further reduces relative surface area and heat loss. They also are able to control blood flow to their extremities, reducing the amount of blood that gets cold, but still keeping the extremities from freezing. In the extreme cold of the Antarctic winter, the females are at sea fishing for food leaving the males to brave the weather by themselves. They often huddle together to keep warm and rotate positions to make sure that each penguin gets a turn in the center of the heat pack.
<img src=”http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/db/Pygoscelis_papua_-Nagasaki_Penguin_Aquarium_-swimming_underwater-8a.jpg/220px-Pygoscelis_papua_-Nagasaki_Penguin_Aquarium_-swimming_underwater-8a.jpg” alt=”penguin” /Distribution and habitat

Although all penguin species are native to the southern hemisphere, they are not found only in cold climates, such as Antarctica. In fact, only a few species of penguin actually live so far south. At least 10[verification needed] species live in the temperate zone; one, the Galápagos Penguin, lives as far north as the Galápagos Islands, but this is only made possible by the cold, rich waters of the Antarctic Humboldt Current that flows around these islands.[38]
Several authors have suggested that penguins are a good example of Bergmann’s Rule [39] [40] where larger bodied populations live at higher latitudes than smaller bodied populations. There is some disagreement about this, and several other authors have noted that there are fossil penguin species that contradict this hypothesis and that ocean currents and upwellings are likely to have had a greater effect on species diversity than latitude alone. [41] [42]
Major populations of penguins are found in: Antarctica, Australia, New Zealand, South America, and South Africa.[43] [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/04/Isabelline_Adelie.jpg/220px-Isabelline_Adelie.jpg

<img src=”http://www.seaworld.org/infobooks/polarbears/images/underwater.gif” alt=”polar bear” />The polar bear (Ursus maritimus) is a bear native largely within the Arctic circle encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the world’s largest land carnivore and also the largest bear, together with the omnivorous Kodiak bear, which is approximately the same size.[3] An adult male weighs around 350–680 kg (770–1,500 lb),[4] while an adult female is about half that size. Although it is closely related to the brown bear, it has evolved to occupy a narrow ecological niche, with many body characteristics adapted for cold temperatures, for moving across snow, ice, and open water, and for hunting the seals which make up most of its diet.[5] Although most polar bears are born on land, they spend most of their time at sea (hence their scientific name meaning “maritime bear”) and can hunt consistently only from sea ice, so spend much of the year on the frozen seahttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ec/Polar_Bear_2004-11-15.jpg/250px-Polar_Bear_2004-11-15.The IUCN now lists global warming as the most significant threat to the polar bear, primarily because the melting of its sea ice habitat reduces its ability to find sufficient food. The IUCN states, “If climatic trends continue polar bears may become extirpated from most of their range within 100 years.”[7] On 14 May 2008, the United States Department of the Interior listed the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.
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