McVitie's Penguin

P..P..P.. PROTECT THE PENGUINS

McVitie's Penguin have developed a long-term commitment to helping the care and welfare of penguins. We have developed the campaign name and logo of 'Protect the Penguins' which demonstrates our support of these wonderful and loveable animals!

Roll over the to find out more.

While the male is incubating the one egg laid by the female, they cuddle up close to the other males to keep warm
They take it in turns to be in the centre of the group
Once they've warmed up, they move to the outside so others can keep warm on the inside

They can't fly
They communicate to other penguins with a call which is unique to each penguin, and can be heard 1 km away
They are highly sociable birds living in colonies that can include thousands of penguins!

They are the largest of all the penguin species
They grow up to 122cm high and weigh from 22-45kg
They usually live for 20 years - but some have lived to 50!

They can hold their breath for up to 20 minutes and dive over 550m
They can survive in temps as low as -49C
They feed predominantly on fish, but eat krill and squid as well

They might waddle out of the water but can walk for over 160 km to get to their feeding areas
To keep their feet warm when it's really cold they rock backwards on their heels, holding their toes up
When it's really, really cold they sit on their heels and use their tail to keep their bottom off the ice!

Female penguins only lay one egg
Once laid, she leaves the male penguin to look after it making the 160km journey back to open water for food

The Emperor penguin, together with the Adélie penguin are the only true Antarctic penguins breeding exclusively on the Antarctic continent
They live around the coastal areas and islands of Antarctica because they prefer the cold waters of the Southern Ocean to the warmer waters found further north