Penguins: The Ultimate Guide – book review

By Gabriel Thoumi

Penguins: The Ultimate Guide IS the ultimate guide to penguins. With more than 400 pictures detailing all 18 penguin species on Earth, this book will educate and delight you. While it is a bona fide bird book, Penguins: The Ultimate Guide is also a beautiful coffee table book that would make a great gift for any wildlife lover.

Penguins: The Ultimate Guide will provide you with interesting facts about penguins, details about their natural history and evolution, approaches to their conservation as well as information on the impacts of climate change on their populations. While we often think we know a lot about penguins because of how often they are anthropomorphized and employed in the media, we really understand very little about most penguin species. This is because most of their lives are lived in remote locations and often underwater.

For example, did you know that….

  • The Gentoo Penguin can swim up to 22.3 miles per hour?
  • All penguins have barbs inside their mouths that allow them to hold onto slippery pray easily?
  • Penguins actually have long legs that are hidden underneath their feathers?
  • Penguins experience a catastrophic molt every year so they can replace all their feathers at once?
  • Penguins have nictitating membranes that serve as underwater googles allowing them unprecedented sight underwater?
  • Penguins preen gland secretes an oil that acts as a waterproofing agent?
  • Because they cannot fly, even the smallest amounts of petroleum will kill penguins by destroying the waterproofing on their feathers?
  • Avian cholera and avian pox and other pathogens can decimate penguin populations?

In many ways, as polar bears are the canaries of the Arctic demonstrating climate change’s awful impacts, penguins are canaries of the southern latitudes also demonstrating the catastrophic changes caused by climate change on Earth.

Penguins: The Ultimate Guide  is simply inspiring.

How to order:

Penguins: The Ultimate Guide

Publisher:            Princeton University Press
ISBN:                        9780691162997
Author:                   Tui De Roy, Mark Jones & Julie Cornthwaite

Gabriel Thoumi, CFA, Certified Ecologist, is a frequent contributor to Mongabay.com.

Author: mongabay

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