Warning: Do not watch this adorable live stream of the Penguins at SeaWorld in San Diego unless you can squeal with happiness at your place of work. Just wait until the first penguin takes a run at the live penguin camera, and you'll turn into a hopeless pile of joy.

The live stream is promoting the Discovery Channel's Frozen Planet (which is premiering on March 18th). FYI, feeding times happen throughout the day (it's intense) EDIT: and there will be future Q&A sessions on Monday March 19th at 12:00pm ET.

Join us every day to watch these funny and fascinating creatures swim, slide, eat and waddle around SeaWorld's state of the art facility. Kept at a brisk 25°F year-round and featuring nearly 300 penguins from five different species, there's only three places in the world you can get this experience - Antarctica, SeaWorld and of course by watching Frozen Planet, which premieres March 18 on Discovery.

If you want to get closer to these animals in person, check out SeaWorld San Diego's Penguins Up-Close Tour. You'll spend a fascinating hour exploring a side of SeaWorld most guests never witness. Go behind the scenes at the Penguin Encounter to learn about the lives of warm and cold weather penguins. You'll get to interact with a penguin face to face and spend some enriching educational time with a SeaWorld penguin expert.

Don't miss Frozen Planet, Sundays at 8pm on Discovery starting March 18. Also, be sure to visit the penguins at SeaWorld’s Penguin Encounter.

Penguins (order Sphenisciformes, family Spheniscidae) are a group of aquatic, flightless birds living almost exclusively in the southern hemisphere, especially in Antarctica. Highly adapted for life in the water, penguins have countershaded dark and white plumage, and their wings have become flippers. Most penguins feed on krill, fish, squid, and other forms of sealife caught while swimming underwater. They spend about half of their lives on land and half in the oceans.

Penguins are superbly adapted to aquatic life. Their vestigial wings have become flippers, useless for flight in the air. In the water, however, penguins are astonishingly agile. Penguins' swimming looks very similar to bird's flight in the air.[30] Within the smooth plumage a layer of air is preserved, ensuring buoyancy. The air layer also helps insulate the birds in cold waters. On land, penguins use their tails and wings to maintain balance for their upright stance.

All penguins are countershaded for camouflage – that is, they have black backs and wings with white fronts.[31] A predator looking up from below (such as an orca or a leopard seal) has difficulty distinguishing between a white penguin belly and the reflective water surface. The dark plumage on their backs camouflages them from above.

Diving penguins reach 6 to 12 km/h (3.7 to 7.5 mph), though there are reports of velocities of 27 km/h (17 mph) (which are more realistic in the case of startled flight).[citation needed] The small penguins do not usually dive deep; they catch their prey near the surface in dives that normally last only one or two minutes. Larger penguins can dive deep in case of need. Dives of the large Emperor Penguin have been recorded reaching a depth of 565 m (1,870 ft) for up to 22 minutes. ( Source Wikipedia)
Other source for this article ( http://io9.com/ http://www.ustream.tv )






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Not seeing a crystal clear picture? The penguins can get so close to the camera housing that they sometimes get it wet. Plus, it's very cold in the exhibit (25-27°F) and things tend to ice over. So if things don't look great right now, stick with us. We try to wipe down/dry off the camera housing as much as possible. Thanks.