Why can t penguins go to the North Pole and why there are no penguins in the Arctic

The South and North Poles are located at opposite ends of the globe and are places with very cold climates and snow and ice all year round. The climate and environmental conditions seem to be very similar, but why is it that penguins live in Antarctica, while the Arctic does not?

To clarify this issue, we need to start from both historical and practical aspects.

Penguins, as we call them, are a large group of birds in the animal taxonomy, they cannot fly, they are adapted to life in the water, and they are all distributed in the southern hemisphere. Scientists believe that penguins evolved 100 million years ago from a species of flying bird that lived in the area of present-day New Zealand. At that time, New Zealand was not as far away from the Antarctic as it is now, so some penguins spread to the Antarctic, forming the common species of Antarctic penguins today.

From a practical point of view, although the environment of Antarctica and North A is similar, the ecological conditions are not the same. Antarctica is a separate continent surrounded by a wide ocean. The climate is cold, with only a few primitive insects and bryophytes growing, so there is a lack of large herbivores, let alone carnivores like polar bears.

Penguins can therefore get enough food in the surrounding seas.

Being far from the mainland also prevents penguins' natural predators from migrating to Antarctica, thus providing penguins with a unique environment to grow and inhabit. Therefore, even if we ignore historical factors and artificially transport penguins to the Arctic, it will be difficult for them to inhabit and reproduce in the Arctic for a long time.

Why there are no penguins in the Arctic.

In fact, a long time ago, a species of penguin lived in the Arctic, but now it is extinct. This penguin, known as the Arctic Great Penguin", 60 cm tall, with a brown head and black feathers on the back, much like a foreign gentleman in a night dress. They live in Scandinavia, in the areas of ocean currents in Canada and northern Russia, and on all Arctic and subarctic islands.

At its peak, there were several million.

About 1,000 years ago, the Vikings spotted the great penguins. From then on, the great penguin's doom came. Especially after the 16th century, the Arctic exploration boom, and the great penguins became the object of competition among explorers, navigators and indigenous people.

A long period of indiscriminate hunting led to the complete extinction of the Arctic great penguins.

Today, penguins living in the Antarctic region have developed their ancestors in the area south of the equator. Scientists speculate that the reason why they don't continue their journey north to the Northern Hemisphere may be that penguins can't tolerate the warm waters of the tropics. The northernmost limit of their range is very much in line with the 20 region of average annual temperature, and the warm equatorial currents and higher temperatures form a natural barrier that prevents penguins from moving north across the equator, and they must stay in the sea where melted water from the Antarctic or colder currents from the deep sea pass through.

Reasons why penguins can't go to the North Pole:

1. Penguins: Penguins' physiological characteristics dictate that they must stay in waters where there is melting snow and ice from Antarctica, or where colder currents flow from the deep sea.

2. Natural causes: The hot tropical climate, warm equatorial currents and higher temperatures form a physical barrier that prevents heat-phobic penguins from continuing to the North Pole.

3. Human causes: There were originally penguins named Daqi in the Arctic region, but later due to a series of unreasonable human behaviors, they were deprived of the chance of survival in the northern hemisphere, making the penguins in the Arctic extinct.

1. There is no land: The first reason is that there is no land in the Arctic, and the breeding of penguins must be carried out on land. In Antarctica, there is a large snow-covered plateau that is perfect for penguins.

2. Indiscriminate extinction: There were penguins in the Arctic a long time ago, but due to the indiscriminate killing of penguins by the ruler at that time, the penguins in the Arctic were extinct, so the great penguins in the Arctic have long disappeared.

3. Inability to migrate: Why don't Antarctic penguins migrate to the North Pole? Because penguins like to dress up in a pure and cold environment, and from the South Pole to the North Pole, they have to pass through the equator, and the penguins cannot tolerate the extremely hot environmental conditions, so they do not go north.

4. Food demand: The population distribution in the northern hemisphere is more than that in the southern hemisphere, and the demand for food is also more. So for penguins, the northern hemisphere does not have as much food as the southern hemisphere, which is not conducive to their survival.

Penguins live next to Antarctica.

They live in very cold polar regions. The North and South Poles are polar regions, but penguins only live in the Antarctic region, and many penguin species currently live in the Antarctic region. In the Arctic, there are no penguins.

Penguins are able to live and breed in cold climates. On land, it lives like a Western gentleman in a tuxedo, walking, swaying, encountering danger, falling and climbing, embarrassed. But in the water, the penguin's short wings become a powerful pair of "paddles", which can swim at speeds of up to 25-30 kilometers per hour.

You can travel 160 kilometers in one day with an oak. It mainly feeds on krill, squid, and small fish.

Habits. Penguins feed on marine zooplankton, mainly Antarctic krill, and sometimes some brachiopods, squid, and small fish. Penguins have a good appetite and each penguin eats an average kilogram of food per day, mainly Antarctic krill.

Thus, penguins play an important role in the Southern Ocean food chain as predators. Penguins prey on about 33.17 million tonnes of krill in Antarctica, accounting for 90% of the total consumption of Antarctic birds and equivalent to half of the krill preyed by whales.

Penguins have a simple, generous temperament, and are very cute. Although the penguins are extraordinary, a little arrogant, and even domineering, when people approach them, they do not look away from people, sometimes as if nothing happened, sometimes as if they were ashamed, at a loss, and sometimes they look around, turn their heads and ears, and chirp.

Why there are no penguins in the Arctic.

Why aren't penguins heading north?

From the penguins in Africa and Australia, it's not hard to see that it's not the climatic conditions that prevent penguins from moving north, as these areas are not much different from other terrestrial climates on Earth.

With the exception of a few penguins living in Antarctica, which are unable to adapt to the high temperatures and have difficulty migrating north, all other penguins are expected to be able to cope with the climate.

The instinct of the creatures is to expand their territory, or theoretically, the penguins should migrate further north.

Penguins in the Arctic.

There is not a single bird in the Arctic that cannot fly, because the Arctic is not as barren as the Antarctic branches, and there are many species and fierce animals.

The quintessential example is the polar bear, and if you put penguins in the North Pole, polar bears will become fat bears, and they will no longer have a reason not to eat penguins.

But what if you found a place like the Galapagos Islands where there are no natural predators?

This is probably possible, so there were already people who did this as early as 1936.

As we all know, the climate and environment of the South Pole and the North Pole of the earth are actually similar, both are ice and snow, and they are covered by a thick ice shell. But why aren't penguins in the Arctic?

Penguins' ancestors were born in the late Cretaceous period, where Tyrannosaurus rex was active, in areas around present-day Antarctica and New Zealand. At that time, the earth's climate was warm, and penguins were not birds living in cold areas at that time, but because of the huge meteorite hitting the earth, the earth's temperature changed drastically, and the cold began to cover the earth, and the result was that the dinosaurs could not adapt and were wiped out, but the penguins were able to dive to the icy deep sea in order to hunt for food, so they had this ability to withstand the cold, so that they could survive this climate change.

Today, more than ninety percent of the world's penguins live in the nutrient-rich and life-rich Antarctica and its surrounding cold oceans. In search of an easier environment to live in, penguins have a long history of migration over the years, but the northernmost point of their distribution is only on the Galapagos Islands, near the equator in the Pacific Ocean, surrounded by cold snaps.

Why penguins do not cross the equator and move to the North Pole is presumably the main factor in the warm currents flowing around the equator. Because the tropical ocean flowing with warm currents has fewer nutrients, there are also very few organisms that can be used as penguin food. In addition, there are many natural predators that are as difficult to deal with as sharks, so no matter how hard they try in the future, there is little chance that penguins will expand their habitat to the Arctic.

By the way, in fact, the first bird called "penguin" was a bird called the great puffin located in the North Pole, and later people who went to the Antarctic found a bird that was very similar to the great puffin in the Arctic, so it was natural to call this bird penguin. Sadly, the great puffin, the originator of penguins, is one of the favorite foods of polar bears, and later humans have carried out large-scale killing of great puffins because of their covetous feathers, so about 150 years ago, the great puffin completely disappeared from the North Pole, so since then, only penguins living in the southern hemisphere remain.