In honor of Penguin Awareness Day, we’re featuring the big daddy of the penguin world–the emperor penguin. At about 4 feet tall and weighing up to 100 pounds, it’s both the tallest and heaviest penguin species. The emperor is found only in Antarctica, where it endures wind chills colder than -75 degrees F and blizzard winds of more than 120 mph. It survives these harsh weather conditions by storing lots of fat underneath four layers of feathers. But the emperor penguin truly rules underwater, where it spends roughly half of its life. Studies show that an emperor can dive more than 1,700 feet below the surface, holding its breath more than 15 minutes at a time. It goes to such great depths in search of food, often for its babies back on shore.
It’s Penguin Awareness Day
Today in History
More Desktop Wallpapers:
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Celebrating Mexico in a Cultural Capital
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Caribou on the move
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To Roswell, and beyond!
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Happy Easter from the ‘peeps’ at Bing
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Of balloons and lost pantaloons
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Ingenuity in action on the Santa Monica Pier
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Cold? What cold?
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Jasper Dark Sky Festival
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Wind horses carry wishes for a new year
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San Blas Islands, Panama
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World Population Day
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Barn owl, England
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Groundhog Day
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Happy Lunar New Year!
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Oh, to sleep under the northern lights
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Where is this gorgeous peak?
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The Grand Départ: Tour de France begins
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St. Patricks Day in County Waterford, Ireland
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A lush, green escape
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Lake Peipus, Estonia
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A story of wind and ice
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The forecast calls for blooms
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Happy Birthday, Eiffel Tower
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A city, a cliff, a canyon…and cheese
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Sunbeams across Tartu County, Estonia
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Corn maze in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania
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We did not invent this, honest
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Al-Khazneh in Petra, Jordan
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Is this Minecraft headquarters?
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Nature Photography Day