• Question: why don't penguins fly

    Asked by jayneic to Christina on 17 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Christina Pagel

      Christina Pagel answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      Evolution!

      Penguins used to be able to fly, but as they adapted to colder environments where their source of food is from the sea, the most important things to them is being able to swim (and they’re really well adapted to swimming) and being able to keep warm (which is why they’re fat and sleek)… Flying is useful to get away from animals trying to eat them, but actually in the cold places penguins live they don’t really have other animals trying to eat them. Except maybe sharks & whales, but they can’t leave the sea, so for a penguin being able to get onto land is protection enough.

      So given all that, since being able to fly stops offering any advantage to survival and it’s costly in terms of energy, gradually penguins lost the ability to fly…

      hope that makes sense!

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