How come there are no penguins in the North Pole?

Answer 1

Cold-adapted creatures like penguins can't travel between the Poles because they'd have to go through the hot places in between them. So for them to exist at both Poles, they'd have had to evolve in both places separately, which is practically impossible.

Unless of course you're a Fundie, in which case penguins don't live at the North Pole because God said so, and if you dare to question His word you'll burn in everlasting Hellfire, so there.

Answer 2

The equivalent of penguins in the northern hemisphere are the auks. These fill the same ecological niche. It would be quite possible for auks to fly to the southern hemisphere an for penguins to swim to the northern hemisphere if there were a reason for doing so. The occasional albatross finds its way across the equator and they have been seen in Europe from time to time.

Penguins evolved in the southern hemisphere and auks evolved in the north. Explanations for this have already been given.

The big problem with cross-equatorial travel is the lack of food. Tropical waters support very little marine life away from the coral reefs. Penguins and auks are not going to fly or swim into an area where there is no food. The Galapagos penguins survive on the equator because of the nutrient rich, cold Humboldt current that sweeps up the west coast of South America all the way to the Galapagos islands. Without that current, there would ne no food and no penguins.

Answer 3

Rather than foolishly rant against religion like AmyF, this is actually a very interesting scientific question.

The Cryogenian period (~600 million years ago) had a "snowball earth" according to most models. Though penguins are not assumed to have come about until 50-100 million years ago, the snowball earth would have allowed the ancestors of penguins to have migrated and (eventually) become isolated at both poles.

Since only 2 of the 17 penguin species actually prefer living on the ice sheet (most like it a bit warmer, some even like the rather tropical Galapagos Islands near the equator!), there seems to be a tacet probability that these types would have gotten along just fine in the northernmost non-polar land masses.

However the plethora of land-based predators up north (there really are none to speak of down in the inland south) allowing them to nest in peace, and the much richer waters of the south are likely the largest reasons that penguins would never really have acclimated to the northern locations, and those ancestors who might have made their way north, either died out, or tracked back south.

Answer 4

Penguins evolved from grebe-like birds that lived along the shores of the ancient supercontinent of Gondwanaland, which was in the Southern Hemisphere. As Gondwanaland broke apart, each fragment wound up with its own native populations of penguins, except for India and Madagascar. So, that's why there are penguins in South Africa, South America, Australia, and Antarctica.

Also, another reason penguins aren't in the Northern Hemisphere is that the auks take the ecological place of penguins in the Northern Hemisphere, though, all of them, with the exception of the Great Auk, can still fly. Species won't/can't naturally emigrate to a new area if there's someone already occupying their preferred lifestyle.

Answer 5

There's no land mass. Look at any globe or map. The North Pole is surrounded by the Arctic Ocean, and the South Pole by the continent of Antarctica.

Penguins need to nest on land.

Answer 6

I bet the Eskimos ate them thousands of years ago, while nobody lived at the South Pole to do this terrible deed.

Answer 7

They evolved in the southern hemisphere and because they were adapted to a cold environment, they had no way of crossing the very hot (in comparison to what they're used to) equator.

Answer 8

Because it's too far to walk lol. =)

Answer 9

THERE USED TO BE BUT THEY DROWNED
*TALKING NONSENSE*