Why Can't Penguins Fly? Analysis of the Main Reasons

Penguins are one of the oldest swimming birds, and very likely settled in Antarctica before the ice armor formed. They can live and breed in the severe cold of -60°C, feeding mainly on krill, squid, and small fish. However, since penguins are a type of bird, many people want to know whether penguins can fly. Let's take a look below at why penguins can't fly!

Can penguins actually fly?

Penguins cannot fly. Penguins are typical seabirds. Although they cannot fly, their swimming ability makes them superstars among birds. Many waterbirds swim by paddling forward with webbed feet, but although penguins also have webbed feet, these are only used as a rudder to control direction. The power for moving forward comes entirely from those oar-like wings, which flap through the water as if flying.

Why can't penguins fly?

For a long time, there have been several theories explaining why penguins cannot fly. One view holds that some species lost the ability to fly because they lacked ground predators. Another view is a biomechanical hypothesis: when birds fly and dive, they must use their wings for two different tasks, and according to this biomechanical hypothesis, it is impossible to build wings that are good at both at the same time. Penguins once faced an evolutionary choice: whether to fly in the air or move agilely underwater. As the wings became more and more efficient when penguins dived, their flying ability became weaker and weaker. At a certain point, flight became very laborious, so the best choice was to give up flying and let the wings shrink into flippers.

How fast can penguins swim?

Penguins swim very fast. The emperor penguin can swim about ten kilometers per hour, while the white-capped penguin has a record of swimming thirty-six kilometers per hour, making it the fastest-swimming of all birds. Penguins often use dolphin-style swimming, that is, diving for a distance, surfacing to breathe, then diving again to continue swimming. In fact, penguins are also the diving champions among birds, with records of diving underwater for 18 minutes and diving to a depth of 265 meters.

Why aren't penguins afraid of the cold?

Although Antarctica is bitterly cold, penguins have been tempered by millions of years of blizzards. They have a very thick layer of fat, and the feathers over their whole body have become overlapping, tightly joined scale-like forms. This special feather coat not only makes it difficult for seawater to penetrate it, but even temperatures near minus one hundred degrees Celsius cannot break through its insulation defense. Moreover, through long-term evolution, penguins have developed a unique vascular system, in which arteries and veins form a three-dimensional interlocking arrangement. The cold blood flowing back to the heart and the warm blood flowing out from the heart can exchange heat, thereby ensuring the temperature of the blood.