Proud Penguins by Kevin

God made penguins to catch their prey easily from the surrounding sea life. Emperor penguins eat squid, which are very slippery and hard to grasp creatures. Penguins, however, have advantages. Their prey cannot squirm out of their mouths because they have spikes on the top of their mouth and their tongue. They also have long beaks to snap up their food. Although squid are very fast, penguins are faster and can swim at speeds of 30 mph. They can dive to depths of 1,500 feet and stay under water for over 18 minutes to catch their food such as squid, shrimp, krill, and small fish. God created these peculiar birds especially unique to catch their food.

Penguins have ferocious enemies. Sea birds hungrily devour penguin eggs before they hatch. They will also feed on unguarded or unwatched chicks. Humans are also an enemy of penguins even when we do not purposely kill them. Sometimes pollution and litter will cause harm to the penguin colony. For instance, in 1989 hundreds of birds died because a massive Argentine oil tanker accidentally spilled 170,000 gallons of gas into the ocean. In addition, tourists visit nesting grounds and penguins become disturbed and leave their nests causing many chicks never to hatch out of their eggs. There are also sea creatures such as killer whales and seals that would love to get a tasty snack like a penguin or two. The worst enemies of the penguin are the leopard seals, which are strong, muscular, swift, and powerful. They are above all the terror of the ocean for the penguin. Sometimes a leopard seal follows a penguin’s shadow as it walks along the ice. Smashing through the ice, the seal will grab the penguin before it knows what happened. Although penguins have fierce enemies, they can swim up to 30 mph if they need to escape their predators.

Mother and father penguins care for their babies. Both males and females spend months feeding at the ocean because they will not eat for a long time to come. Once they dine, they head back to their nesting ground where they will choose a mate and the females will lay the egg. The mother penguin keeps the egg in a tuft of fur hanging down from the bottom of her stomach to her feet. This extra flap of fur protects the egg and the chick from the cold, freezing winter. Carefully, the mother trades the egg to the father penguin. Sometimes they are too eager and will let the egg stay out too long or will lose it. Others who are patient will trade the egg successfully. After the trading, the mother will return to the sea to feed. The father now has the egg and he and all the other male penguins stay in a huge huddle to keep warm. They will have to endure one of the toughest ordeals in the world: the Antarctic winter. The father penguins will suffer for one speck of life inside a tiny shell. The temperature can reach 100 degrees below freezing, the winds around them can reach a speed of 150 mph, and snow can fall several feet per day. Yet the father perseveres for the egg. When the egg hatches, the mother returns and regurgitates partially digested food into the chick’s mouth. The father returns to the sea to feed after two months of not eating. The penguin parents are proud of their chick, which they have both brought into the world.