Ricerca su un animale in inglese

Introduction

Penguins are a species of bird that lives an average of 15 years. They cannot fly because they have flippers instead of wings, so they usually walk on land, but if they live in cold places, when the conditions are right, they slide through the ice on their bellies. They are also expert swimmers and divers and their colors help them camouflage in water, when they hunt shrimps and other small fish. Penguins mostly live in the Southern Hemisphere, only one species is found in the north of the Equator: the Galapagos penguin. The largest living species is the Emperor Penguin, while the smallest one is the Little Blue Penguin.

Why do we need penguins

Penguins play important roles in our ecosystems: with their eggs they serve as food for predators such as seals or seabirds in the cold places and such as foxes and leopards in the warmer ones. They also affect prey populations by hunting fish, krill and shrimps; some species even modify landscapes, because they dig nests into the ground.

Penguin's extinctions

Two thirds of Antarctica’s penguin native species are under threat of extinction, in particular the Emperor Penguin. There are many reasons why this animal is at risk, first of all penguins are very sensitive to human activities and some of their features, for example the fact that they don't have wings makes very difficult for them to escape from introduced predators; moreover they are susceptible to illnesses caused by pathogens. In addition, they make wide use of geographical areas in the oceans and, during their migrations, they are exposed to various threats like oil pollution. Climate change is another growing concern for the species that live in Antarctica: these penguins’ lives depend on sea ice, especially for access to food, but ice has been melting because of global warming. Scientists predict that penguins will likely disappear if temperature rises by just 2 degrees: it may happen in less than 40 years. Overfishing efforts near penguin colonies can make more complicated for penguins to find nourishment for their chicks and for themselves.

What can we do

Create protected marine reserves to alleviate pressures on penguins and to help keep ecosystems resilient;
Reduce the number of introduced predators and illnesses by minimizing tourism near penguins’ colonies;
Be more sustainable and reduce our CO2 impact by doing small actions and, thanks to them, reduce pollution;
Donate money to associations like WWF or adopt penguins to keep them safe.

Why penguins

I chose to talk about penguins because not many people know their importance: they’re usually seen as funny animals who can only make you smile, but as I explained in the previous paragraphs, they are fundamental for our ecosystem. Their disappearance is not good for oceans' and coasts’ health and I think it’s important to prevent their extinction by spreading awareness and making people understand that this species might be extinct within 40 years.