Are there penguins in the northern hemisphere

Penguins live almost entirely in the Southern Hemisphere With so much variety among penguin species it seems strange that they never moved farther north and filled more ecological niches as they did in the Southern Hemisphere. Figure 3: Sonja Ross.

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These species are not being directly related to the penguins of the Southern Hemisphere; the two species were quite similar. Both south and north hemisphere species had similar colored feathers, were flightless, both were aquatic and lived in a cold environment. European explorers found their way to the Antarctic in the 19th century; they saw a flightless bird species which appeared exactly like the Great Auk.

The penguins situated in northern lives on the Galapagos Islands, it is km west of mainland Ecuador or South America. Some individuals crossed the equator and nest on the Galapagos. In our recent study , my colleagues and I found no evidence that the great auk was already in decline or at risk of extinction prior to the intensive hunting.

This suggests that no other factors were at play in their demise and human hunting pressure alone was enough to cause their extinction. Our findings highlight how industrial-scale commercial exploitation of natural resources has the potential to drive even an abundant, wide-ranging, highly mobile species to extinction within a short period of time. Through studying species that have become extinct we are able to learn things which can help us in the fight to conserve species still living today.

One way to do this is to look at the genetics of extinct species. Using ancient DNA aDNA we can look at things like genetic diversity how much genes varied between different individuals in a species , which can reveal trends in how genetically healthy the species is.

It can also show us how a species may have responded to environmental change, hunting or the introduction of new species into its habitat. There is lots of evidence , including archaeological records and written accounts, that shows the great auk was hunted throughout its existence.

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The name prior to this move can be found at the following link. Despite the fact that nearly all penguin species are native to Earth 's southern hemisphere , there are, remarkably, penguins in the northern hemisphere as well. These flightless birds are at large in northern waters not only because there are penguin colonies on islands crossing the equator , but also because of two attempts to introduce penguins to the Arctic Circle. Although most penguins' natural habitat lies well within the southern hemisphere , many do live further north.

Because the northernmost point of Fernandina Island lies just inside the northern hemisphere, it is possible for these penguins to make regular incursions into the north.

The possibility of penguins in the Arctic Circle living for some time cannot be conclusively ruled out, as there have been at least two attempts to introduce them to the northern hemisphere. Penguins have certainly not themselves made the Arctic their home; the Earth's poles are probably too far apart for these animals to make the journey.

Penguin experts would not recommend introducing a penguin colony towards the North Pole as they would count as an invasive species , possibly disrupting the ecosystem and disturbing the food chain ; this could threaten other wildlife. Alternatively, penguins would be unable to compete successfully with local species, meaning they would succumb to starvation , disease or predation.