World Penguin Day

25 Apr
We celebrate penguins around the world twice a year. January 20th is Penguin Awareness Day. April 25th is World Penguin Day.
On the 25th of April every year, the Adelie penguins in the Antarctic begin their annual northward migration. The Adelies start migrating in the Antarctic fall season and won’t return to their colonies until the following spring. In true synchronized fashion, the Adelies dive into the frigid waters answering their Nature’s call to migrate. They will swim north for only a few hundred miles (around 600km) and stay among icebergs that are floating about, feasting on krill and other penguin delicacies.
In actuality, these penguins don’t technically go anywhere when they migrate. They’ll bob around in the ocean and rest on the ice until it’s time to head back home to Antarctica. Actually, the reason they do this is because the days in Antarctica are becoming darker during this time of year. Adelies do not see too well in the dark so they migrate north so they can hunt for food, otherwise they would starve.

Penguins are found in Antarctica, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Peru, the Falkland Islands, and the Galapagos Islands. Penguins are probably the world’s most popular bird – think of Happy Feet, March of the Penguins, Pingu and penguin books to name a few uses in popular culture. These charismatic flightless birds are funny to watch on land but are graceful and rapid in water. They occur only in the seas of the Southern hemisphere; there are seventeen species of penguin ranging from the Galapagos to Antarctica.