Their round shape and their lil flappers and their pose is just perfect so adorable

Penguins are so smol?? I thought they were tall like at least maybe 3' or so. But they're less than our own knee height??

Depends on the species of penguin. There are some big ones as well as little guys! Also that penguin might be on the younger side, given that it seems pretty curious about the world.

I'm not a marine biologist though, so treat this with a grain of salt

They go from being the size and weight of a liter of yoghurt (the aptly named Little penguin) to as tall as a zebra and as heavy as a Rottweiler dog (Emperor penguins)

Also known as Little Penguins in a rare case of extremely apt naming 😁

In the nature it's strict forbidden to touch pinguins, becaise it destroys the plumage impregnation and insulation, which has deadly consequences for the pinguin in the Water and with an harsh climate. Because of this you never will see scientifics doing it. Different in Zoos.

Emperor penguins are big, like 4' iirc, but are the largest species. Most penguins are more like the size of an ordinary bird like a duck or a goose or whatever

😍

If seeing this doesn’t delight you, you’re a monster. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. You’re a monster.

They're predators, but they're the "I'm adapted to hunt in one environment but I hang out in another" kind of predator, so they're these amazing fish seeking torpedoes in the water, but they're these delightfully ridiculous footballs in dinner jackets waddling around on land. And they're licensed under the GPL which is always cool.

They have a bunch of these lil fellas at the Cincinnati Zoo, and they are doubly cute in person. Just saying.

Birch Aquarium in San Diego has a little blue penguin live cam of these guys! They are really cute.

https://aquarium.ucsd.edu/cams/penguin-cam

Emperor penguins get up to 3' but those are the largest species, the others range in sizes but most aren't that big

That penguin is saying "Hey hoomans! Get off my lawn!"

This picture looks like it isn't in a harsh climate. We generally think of penguins living in the polar ice caps, but there are several species that live in warmer climates. Based on the sandy beach here, I'm guessing this is one of those.

Penguins just haven't been around humans enough to avoid them, like most mainland animals learned the hard way.

The kororā (little blue penguin) I saw in New Zealand at the most fantastic rehabilitation center at Christchurch airport.

All of the inhabitants are unable to survive in the wild and are being very well cared for. It was amazing.

Apex predator?

Adelie don't care.

But there's no such thing as land predators.

Oh no....

This could be a "those that don't know: :) vs those that know: :|" situation.

Penguins almost only leave their flock and go inland to die, as far as I'm aware it's not exactly known why.

Hello, I would like one fish combo please, hold the seal.

Because they know it's coming, and now's the best time to find out what's out there.

Probably just a random instinct that was reinforced by survival of the fittest (at group population levels) because it meant that group didn't contaminate their nests or water with the dead, which would also attract scavengers that might also try to prey on living penguins when there weren't any already dead handy.

Or maybe they go to get frozen so that when a future penguin solves the problem of death, they can go and unfreeze the frozen penguins and use that massive undead penguin army to conquer more southern islands.

What, humans? No, we are omnivores, occasional predators.

I'll never forget visiting a zoo in North Dakota in the summertime and it was so uncomfortably hot even for humans to be walking around and they had penguins on display at the zoo and the indoor area was closed so they had to be outside on display and they were all huddled together in a corner in the shade trying to escape the oppressive heat and it was breaking my heart. There was a pool there outside for them to swim in, but the pool was in the sun and it was just so friggin' hot outside. Poor little guys.

Viking_Hippie said penguins can be as tall as a zebra and weigh as much as a rottweiler. What is the truth?

No, those are the rare penguinosas, which is a misnomer as they are more closely related to the giant puffin

Wow, that's messed up. I don't know if there's an authority they could be reported to, but that sounds abusive.

Unless proven otherwise I choose to believe that it was the same as with the penguin in the Werner Herzog documentary and the bird quickly returned to their flock moments later. (Herzog didn't show that though because a penguin heading towards death is more dramatic)