Antarctica is an amazing place with lots of reasons why. It is one of the coldest places on this planet but surprisingly it hasn't rained in over 1000 years, making it the driest continent.
This show concentrates mainly on the animals of Antarctica.
Seven out of the seventeen species of penguin live in Antarctica. When these creatures
were first discovered by explorers they
thought that were a type of fish but soon found out that they are a flightless bird.
No one knows why they are
called penguins but people think
that it is because of the
layer of fat they have
underneath their feathers
called penguigo
which they used to be hunted for.
Penguins are very well suited to the harsh conditions that they have to put up with in day to day life. They have a layer of waterproof feathers and just
underneath their skin is a layer of blubber.
Seals have played a key role in the discovery of Antarctica because seal hunters followed them onto the continent thus discovering many of the islands and lots of the mainland.
Many of the species of seal nearly became extinct because when the island was first discovered it was raided by hunters which killed many seals in the Antarctic region.
Now the Antarctic seals are the only creature to be protected by an international law called the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals.
Whales are the largest mammals on the planet but are still endangered. Whale hunting killed off many species and some were lucky enough to survive due to the ban on whale hunting.
Even though the ban is in place Norway and Japan still hunt whales today, killing about 400 whales a year that are mostly minke whales which they claim aren’t extinct.
Top Related