Why can't penguins fly?
Penguins can't fly because their wings work like flippers for swimming instead.
Pip’s answer
- Penguins can't fly because their wings work like flippers for swimming instead.
- Scientists think that long ago, penguins' bird grandparents could fly.
- Splish-splash, their heavy bodies and strong flippers made them super swimmers!
- Wow-ee, underwater, penguins zoom so fast it looks like they fly!
For grown-ups
Penguins descend from flying birds, but over millions of years their wings became stiff, strong flippers suited to swimming. Their dense bones help them dive. In water they effectively fly, and some species reach about 35 kilometers per hour. Being good at both flying and diving is hard, so penguins specialized in swimming.
Ask your child: Would you rather fly in the sky or fly underwater?
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- 🐝Why do bees visit flowers?
- 🦒Why do giraffes have long necks?
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