Penguin Diet

The main eating habits of these aquatic birds!

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The eating habits of penguins stay basically the same throughout the species. Two of the most common foods are squid and fish. Most of the penguin species around Antarctica eat these two main foods. Also, that diet is common around New Zealand, the southern coasts of South America and Africa, and the Galapagos Islands. Other foods, not as common as fish and squid, are crustaceans, small fish, and krill.

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Penguin Prey

 

Fish and Small Fish: Fish are aquatic animals that breathe through gills on the sides of their head. Their skin is made of small scales put together, and they have skelatons made of cartalige.

Squid: They are propelled by their long tentacles. Squid eat small fish.

Crustaceans: Crustaceans include crabs, bivalves, lobsters, and mollusks.

Krill: They are tiny sea animals eaten by penguins and balleen whales.

 

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The diet in these birds change only slightly depending on the latitude.

Example:

The King penguin lives in Antarctica and eats fish, squid, and crustaceans.

The Rockhopper penguin lives in New Zealand and eats fish, krill, and squid.

The Humboldt lives in South America and eats small fish like anchovy and sardine.

The Galapagos lives in Africa and the Galapagos Islands and eats small fish.

 
As you can see the diet changes only a little bit depending on where they live. The closer they get to the south pole, the greater the amount of food and variation of their diet. The closer they get to the equator, there is less variation in their diet. That may be because of destuction of their habitat by humans, or pollution.
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