Have students explain the rationale behind the design of their animals and habitats. Use a globe to show that all 17 species of penguins live south of the equator. Penguins live along the western and southern coasts of South America, the tip of Africa, southern Australia, New Zealand, and all around Antarctica. One species, the Galapagos penguin, lives on the equator in the path of the cold Peru Current. Seven kinds of penguins visit Antarctica, but only two species, the Adelie and Emperor penguins, breed exclusively on the Antarctic continent.
Penguins are the only birds that migrate by swimming.
Trace the migration routes of these Magellanic penguins on a chart of the globe. They may migrate to the west coast of South America to Tetas Point in northern Chile or up the east coast of South America, past Argentina as far north as Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Draw their routes on a map of South America and estimate the distance they have traveled. Using satellite images, match their routes with the location of cold water currents. Research the route by which other species of penguins migrate.