Galapagos penguins are penguins that live on the coast of South America. This makes them the only penguins that live by the equator and in the warm weather. They live on the twenty-four different islands within south America which are called the Galapagos Islands.

-Equator: The pretend circle on the earth's surface, it lands right in the middle of the north and south pole.

Galapagos penguins are pretty small compared to other penguins. They are usually about 53cm in length and between 3.75- 5.73 pounds. The males are usually bigger than females. 

They are the second smallest penguin species. Similar to the other species of penguins they have mostly black fur with specific white areas, which are usually on the head and front of the body. When they are in the water it is hard to see them for their marine predators because they have dark fur. 

- Marine: something that is found within the sea

-Predators: an animal that hunts another for food

They can use their body movements and their voices to communicate with each other. When they use their voices they sort of sound like donkeys. They use their voice to help find their mates and chicks. They can use their wings to move in a certain posture, by doing this they scare off predators and attract their mates.

They live in beach-like areas, on these beaches they can nest on land as well as hunt on the offshore waters. You may be wondering how they can live in the warm areas when they are cold penguins, they do this by having the Cromwell current which brings in cold, nutrient water to the area. This current brings in plenty of good food for these penguins.

-Cromwell Current: A current that flows eastward which goes from the length of the equator to the pacific Ocean 

-Current: The movement of the ocean water from a place to another. Usually caused by the gravity of the moon or the shoreline of the ocean floor.

They live in large social colonies of several hundred individuals on the Fernandina Isabela Islands, this gives them a protective benefit from predators. They are usually territorial and will protect their nesting from everything, even their neighboring penguins.

- Colonies: A land or country under political control from another country. 

- Territorial: Protection of an area or something. 

These penguins eat many types of marine animals. They can dive from about 98-164 feet in the water to catch crustaceans, mollusks, and many zooplankton. Their main foods include anchovies, sardines, pilchards, and mullets.

-Creatures: A living thing that is not a human

When they go hunting they usually go 1 mile offshore to trap their prey from below. During the day it is usually hot for them and they need to cool down, so they will spend most of their day in the water, but when night falls and it becomes cooler they will go back on land. When hunting they avoid hunting in a big group, which leads to them going by themselves or in a pair of two. 

When they are on land they will do a specific pose that has them holding their wings out at the sides of their bodies to lose the heat to the cooling sea breeze, they will also have their bodies hunched over their feet to create a shadow so they stop the exposed skin from getting the harsh feelings of the sun’s rays. Some traits that the Galapagos Penguins have that the cold-whether Penguins don’t have is reduced body fat and fewer traits, they contain these features because this helps prevent them from overheating from being in the sun a lot. To radiate heat away from their bodies they contain areas of bare skin. 

-Overheating: To be excessively hot

-Radiate: Something that will make Light or Heat from the Center.

When they breed it will be throughout the year, but they will wait throughout the year when the food supply is good. Their food supply will usually be good from May to July, which is usually when the water is cold from getting pushed from the Cromwell Current. The typical Temperature that is considered good and cold is when it is at 73 degrees Fahrenheit. 

-Breed: When animals produce offspring

When it is time for them to mate they will find one partner and be committed to that one Penguin throughout their entire lifetime and will have Between 4 to 6 eggs during the reproductive eras each year.

When these penguins are ready to start mating the males will typically be between the ages of four to six, as the females will be from three to four. When they begin to mate the males will groom which is when they do bill dueling and dance-like behavior.

-Mating: Animals coming together to produce offspring 

When they have found their mates they will start building their nests. They usually find/pick places that are protected areas such as caves, volcanic holes. When making these nests they will use any materials they can find, these usually include stones, as well as materials that were stolen from the nest of neighboring penguins.

When these eggs are laid they will be nursed for about forty days and the chicks will hatch and grow for sixty days after being hatched. They will need to be watched and helped for the next three to six months. 

Due to their high tension situation, these Penguins will not live for the fifteen years they can live and produce offspring. When taking care of the baby penguins and eggs both the mother and father will share the responsibility. 

Due to these penguins being endangered they are the rarest and most at stake Penguin species in the entire world. They are endangered to the environmental changes, even so, they have adapted to breeding due to the climate change that has happened.

 -Endangered: Animals that have been threatened by extinction.

-Environmental: Human's effect on nature within the world of its condition.

-Climate Change: The change of warmth within earth due to carbon dioxide caused by humans. 

In 1982 there was a population wipe out from the event of the El Nino, ending with only a handful of these birds. In about 1985, they began to recover slowly and become larger, but then sixty six percent fell in 1997.

The surface waters in the central and eastern of the pacific ocean turned to become a lot warmer than usual due to the El Nino event. This had a major effect on the birds because it reduced the cooler nutrient-rich waters from the deep, it then reversed ocean currents along the equator and a lot of the coast of south and central America. 

-Surface waters: The top layer of water.