We all know that penguins live in Antarctica, right? Well, it’s that some of them do but only two out of the 18 species of penguins live there. So the question arises, where do the rest of them live?
Apart from some poor penguins that are stuck in captivity, all the other penguins live in Southern Hemisphere – and in fact, on every continent. The most northerly of penguin species, the Galapagos penguin, lives on the, yes, the Galapagos Islands. On the other end, the most southerly penguin colony on the planet is a group of Adélie that nest near Camp Royds, Antarctica.
Do Penguins Live in Igloos
That’s one thing we’ve always heard of as kids, right? And as much fascinating as this idea sounds, it is actually not true. Penguins do not live in igloos. People make igloos by cutting compacted snow into bricks and then stacking them in a particular way. Since penguins don’t have knives or saws (or hands, for that matter), a penguin would have a hard time building an igloo, even if it was intellectually capable of it.
The people who traditionally made igloos are the Inuit, who live in the far north of North America and Greenland, where there are no penguins. There are no people native to Antarctica, where most (but not all) penguins live.
Where Do They Live Then
You can find penguins in captivity in several aquariums all over the world. Penguins also, naturally, inhabit on a number of other places, in-between. Contrary to general belief, penguins not only just live in icy areas. Outside of Antarctica, Penguins usually inhabit desertic regions and rocky islands where there are not a large number of land predators, so their incapacity to fly is not an issue.
Their habitat ranges from the ice shelf in Antarctica, like the emperor penguin, to some temperate islands near the equator, like the Galapagos penguin. Also, some penguin species live in South Africa and Australia.
The distribution could be viewed like this:
Species – Habitat
King Penguin
Subarctic islands, Tierra del Fuego, South Georgia Island.
Emperor Penguin
Antarctica.
Adelie Penguin
Ross Sea Region in Antarctica.
Humboldt Penguin
Coastal Peru and Chile in South America
Fiordland Penguin
Fiorland coast and Stewart Island/Rakiura
Chinstrap Penguin
South Sandwich Islands, Antarctica, South Orkneys, South Shetland, South Georgia Island, Bouvet, Balleny and Peter Islands.
Gentoo Penguin
Falkland, South Georgia, Kerguelen, South Shetland, Heard and Macquarie Islands and the Antarctic Peninsula.
Little Blue Penguin
Southern Australia, New Zealand, Chatham Islands and Tasmania. Some reports in Chile.
Northern Little Penguin
New Zealand, nesting only on Banks Peninsula and Motunau Island.
Magellanic Penguin
Southern cone of South America. Coastal south Argentina and southern Chile including the Falkland Islands.
Galapagos Penguin
Galapagos Islands
African Penguin (Jackass Penguin)
South western coast of Africa.
Yellow Eyed Penguin
New Zealand in the South-east coast of South Island, Foveaux Strait and Stewart Island and Auckland and Campbell Islands.
Waitaha Penguin (Extinct)
Used to live in New Zealand
Snares Penguin
New Zealand on the Snares Islands.
Royal Penguin
Inhabits waters surrounding Antarctica and breed only on Macquarie Island
Southern Rockhopper Penguin
The American Southern Rockhopper Penguin lives in the Falkland Islands and islands off Argentina and southern Chile. The Indopacific Southern Rockhopper Penguin lives in the islands of the Indian and western Pacific oceans.
Northern Rockhopper Penguin
Northern Rockhoppers breed on Tristan da Cunha and Gough Island in the South Atlantic Ocean, with the remainder found on St Paul Island and Amsterdam Island in the Indian Ocean.