Revealing the reason that penguins can't fly

Researchers finally discovered why penguins can't fly. According to them, this is because the bird has evolved to swim and dive using its propelling wings.

The fact that flightless penguins have been a mystery to scientists for decades. However, a new study of uria - a penguin-like species of swimming and diving ability, but still able to fly - helped bring the final answer.

Scientists from the University of Aberdeen (UK) discovered that there are not any good birds both flying and swimming / diving. Although not know by, but penguins are the best swimming creatures. They can dive as deep as 564 meters to catch fish, squid and small crustaceans to eat.

The team found that the uria bird basically uses less energy than most other birds when they dive. However, the energy they need when moving in midair is the highest in all levels ever recorded for a flying bird and 31 times as much when they rest.

Penguins have lost their ability to fly when developing swimming / diving skills using wings to create effective thrust. (Photo: Corbis)

Professor John Speakman, a member of the research team, said: "Our findings on the swimming and diving energy levels of uria birds fully match the predictions of biomechanics." .

The fact that the flightless penguin was a mystery is because it leads to an act that seems to show a lack of adaptation. For example, emperor penguins often walk up to 60km between their gathering place on the beach and the ocean - a journey that lasts several days but can be shortened within a few hours if they fly.

In addition, many penguins become targets of predators, such as seals on the sea. This problem can be easily avoided if penguins can fly even above the heads of predators.

However, when applying the new hypothesis to the case of penguins, we can see, their flightlessness could be due to sacrificing the function of the wings in the air in exchange for maximizing their ability. Operation of wings in the water.

Mr. Speakman further explained that, during evolution, the wings of penguins have changed to become more adapted to swimming and diving in the ocean, where they seek food, in order to effectively use energy. quantity. At the same time, the energy needed for penguin flying is getting bigger. And at some point, the bird could not bear to consume so much energy for flight so it gave up its ability to move in the air and gradually could not fly anymore.

The researcher said that perhaps the benefits of energy efficiency when searching for food compensate for the inefficiency of penguins when walking whenever on land. He said that uria may be the modern version of the ancient ancestors of penguins, when they have not lost their ability to fly.