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Animal Themes
Polar Regions
Penguins Theme Unit


Emperor Penguins


Emperor Penguins
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 4 to 7
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   8.23

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    incubation, lays, incubate, circular, responsibility, survival, entire, species, fully, solution, breed, emperor, remain, meantime, adult, upper


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Emperor Penguins   

1     Emperor penguins are one of the world's most cold-enduring animals! They live along the shores of Antarctica - the coldest continent on Earth - where temperatures remain below the freezing mark (32 degrees Fahrenheit) for almost the entire year. How can they survive in such frigid weather? Well, emperor penguins have lots of fat under their skin, and we call this type of fat blubber. Emperor penguins have so much blubber that one third of their body weight can be fat. Aside from blubber, emperor penguins love to huddle in a large, tightly packed, circular group to keep each other warm. They take turns staying near the edges to allow their fellow emperor penguins to move inside of the circle to warm up.
 
2     Standing about 4 feet high and weighing about 66 pounds, emperor penguins are both the tallest and the fattest penguin species. Though their heads and backs are covered in grayish blue, emperor penguins have lemon yellow upper bodies, white bellies, and orange cheeks. They also have a dash of orange on each side of their beaks. Emperor penguins feed on fish, squid, and crustaceans. They are superb divers - they can dive more than 1,000 feet deep and stay underwater for several minutes.

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