January 20 marks Penguin Awareness Day, a day dedicated to
celebrating and protecting our favorite black and white flightless
birds. We've pulled together five of our favorite fun facts to pay
tribute to our feathered friends:
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Penguins can drink salt water. They have specialized nasal glands that filter excess salt from their bloodstream, preventing hypertension.
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Average penguin diving speeds range from 3.7 to 7.5 mph. When startled, they may reach speeds up 20 mph.
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There are only an estimated 6,000 to 15,000 Galapagos penguins remaining, making them the world's rarest penguin species.
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The earliest known penguins lived 66 million years ago, when dinosaurs still roamed the planet. These prehistoric penguins weren't flightless like modern penguins.
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The largest penguin colony in the world is a chinstrap penguin colony in the South Sandwich Islands that numbers roughly 2 million penguins.
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