Penguins+and+their+habitat

=== Penguins are spectacular animals. I find myself wondering how anything can survive in such brutal conditions as the Arctic, especially cute little penguins with no fur. With a little research I found out that penguins basically defy nature in how they stay alive. The men raise the children, they live in water while they are mammals, and they can't fly even though they are birds. At this point I was wondering if anything about them was what I had expected. Well, they still elude me! I would like to share the information that I found about these confusing and majestic "birds". === ===It is in their nature to be fast water birds.They can travel at almost 10 miles an hour! That is pretty fast for a heavy bird with tiny wings, but their bodies are designed to handle cold and wet conditions with ease. "Penguins spend most of their lives in the water, 75% actually."(Penguin Adaption)=== ===Penguins have several traits that help them to survive in the arctic conditions such as closely placed feathers that form a waterproof barrier, they also use a particular swimming pattern that allows for them to swim quickly and still come up for air periodically while swimming. "This style of swimming is known as porpoising" (Sea World) Normally penguins can swim better about 20 feet under the surface of the water because the currents are in their favor, but the need for air every few minutes leads some penguins to use this technique.=== ==="Penguins have a bone mass that is heavy enough to help them stay submerged when they are swimming" (Penguin Adaption) If their bone mass were less dense the mixture of that and the amount of blubber that is on their bodies would make them float to the surface of the ocean every time that they tried to swim. That would be very irritating.=== ===Their streamlined body allows for easy maneuvering in the water which they desperately need when they are going so fast, especially when they are doing so to escape a predator. Predators don't really stand a chance in my opinion, penguins can elude predators on land by gliding to safety on their bellies, and in the water by swimming so quickly. "The penguins eyesight is actually better underwater" (Sea World) They don't have the best vision on land, but some of this has to do with the fact that when the sun is out everything around them is reflective and bright, and when the sun isn't out well it's dark! === === "Penguins are amazing creatures in that they are monogamous creatures, most animals can change mates every breeding season, but penguins actually have a courtship that they go through where the men will make nests out of whatever materials they can find which is usually rocks." (Penguin Adaption) This act puts the women in control to pick a partner based on the impressiveness of his nest and other physical traits. By allowing the woman to chose her mate they usually end up with the best mix of DNA for successful babies. ===