The underwater world of Gentoo Penguins
- Wednesday 22nd May 2024
Dive deep with us as we explore the remarkable swimming behaviour of these agile and speedy birds, from their incredible speed and to their hunting strategies and underwater navigation.
Gentoo penguins are the third largest penguin in the world and found almost exclusively in the southern hemisphere.
These highly social animals display a wide variety of different behaviors including social interactions such as bowing, calling and swimming. This behavior consists of the penguins entering the water for more than 3 minutes to be classified as swimming.
Gentoos are the fastest swimming species of penguin, clocking up a maximum speed of around 22mph underwater. Their wings act as natural flippers and their ability to change the angle of their wings whilst swimming helps with this. They soar through the water like a torpedo to catch their food in the wild including fish, squid and shrimp.
The colour in the shrimp they eat is what makes their feet and beaks orange. They also feed their chicks by regurgitating partially digested foods straight into their mouth.
As natural swimmers, penguins spend large amounts of time in the water. Similar to other birds, they lay eggs and raise their chicks on land however some species of penguin spend up to 75 percent of their lives in the water.
When swimming, penguins jump out of the water every 50-100m, flying through the air for a second before diving back in again. This behaviour is called porpoising, this allows penguins to maintain high speeds, observe their surroundings but also flee from predators.
Alongside hunting in the water, penguins are also playful and love to slide down icy patches onto their bellies, taking turns to dive into the water.
The Gentoo colony at SEA LIFE also loves to get in on the aquatic fun!
Day in the life of our Gentoo Penguin Colony
Here at SEA LIFE London Aquarium, the Gentoos are no different, they love a good swim and exhibit these natural behaviours regularly. They’re also scatter fed and given water based enrichment to encourage more natural swimming behaviours.
In the morning – they go for a swim, dive and swim together as a group before coming to feed.
They also preen their feathers regularly when swimming or on land. This is because they can get quite messy, but they’re excellent cleaners!
The younger penguins tend to enjoy swimming more than our older/paired birds, they also love playing and chasing the hose in the water too, when the aquarists are cleaning the habitat.
By afternoon, things slow down – the penguins stop swimming as much and start to settle in for the night.
By nighttime, our penguins are ready for bed. Did you know penguins can sleep standing up or laying on their belly?
