Black Footed Penguins
...uin is an excellent swimmer due to their stream-lined, torpedo, shaped bodies, which allows them to glide through the water with ease. They also use their wings as propellers and their tail and their webbed feet with three toes to steer. Although the Black Footed Penguin has feathers, it is able to swim deep into the ocean. This is because they have an oil gland, located at the end of the tail, which is used to water-proof their feathers. Their heavy, solid bones, which keep them grounded (they cannot fly), and their fused joints, which deny them the ability to flap their wings, also help them to be excellent swimmers. Predators of the Black Footed Penguin include: octopuses, sharks, Dominican gulls and sacred ibis. To protect themselves from such predators, the Black Footed Penguin is totally black on its’ back, so when looking down from the surface they blend in with the dark sea, and white, with the exception of the black spotted dots, on their chests, so when looking up at them from the ocean floor, they blend in with the sunlight entering the ocean through the surface. The Black Footed Penguin becomes sexually mature as young as two years old. Once they find their mate, they remain together for the rest of their lives. To breed, the Black Footed Penguins gather in large colonies. These gatherings are usually full of courtship and mutual displays and very noisy due to the donkey-like braying noise that they use to communicate which gives them the nick name of the Jackass Penguin. Most of their time is spent looking for nesting materials to bu...