Wildlife
Flying penguins are a very recent addition to the penguin family in evolutionary terms. A few isolated species have evolved to make the most of their small wings, allowing them to migrate to warmer climes for the harsh Antarctic winter months. Elusive and secretive, these populations of penguin are extremely hard to locate in the rainforest and even seeing them fly on their migration is a rare experience. Little is yet known about just how these small birds survive flying over such vast distances, or why the anatomical differences they possess enable them to fly when other penguin families cannot.
Scientific name: Volatis
Rank: Genus
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Flying freedom
Penguins head to the rainforest to beat the winter blues.
Although known for their acrobatic swimming skills, it was a real revelation to find a colony of penguins that could actually fly - particularly when it was discovered that they spent their Christmas holidays basking in the sunshine of tropical South America. This short film caught the imagination of the public in April 2008, but (sadly?) was actually a hoax to publicise the recently launched BBC iPlayer service. More surprising was just how many people within the wildlife media world were convinced by the clever computer graphics - well almost!
The following habitats are found across the Flying penguins distribution range. Find out more about these environments, what it takes to live there and what else inhabits them.
Discover what these behaviours are and how different plants and animals use them.
Additional data source: Animal Diversity Web
Take a trip through the natural world with our themed collections of video clips from the natural history archive.
Wildlife wind-ups
It's not only humans that like a good joke, animals play all kinds of tricks on one another in their attempts to gain an advantage.
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