Penguins are some of the more memorable of birds. Although most folks don’t really know what a flycatcher is, just about everyone knows about penguins. We know that they can’t fly, are patterned in crisp black and white (and thus look like they wear tuxedos), and are birds of the cold southern oceans.

While the first two of those facts are mostly true (at least one penguin species looks more blue-gray than black), the third is actually not true. Most penguin species do occur in the Antarctic, but not all of them. Two species range north to Chile and Peru, and one other penguin actually lives in Ecuador right on the equator.

Ironically, the Galapagos Penguin isn’t found anywhere other than the place on the globe that receives the most direct rays from the sun. With that in mind, it would seem that weather in the Galapagos would be a bit too hot for it. However, this unique penguin can exist there for some of the same reasons that so many other animals make their homes in the bucket list archipelago. Cold water is the source of life for the Galapagos Penguin, thousands of seabirds, and prolific marine wildlife around the islands. The cold upwellings from nearby deep waters provide enough nutrients and small creatures to form the base of a food pyramid that includes the Galapagos Penguin. It also benefits from the temperatures of those cool waters despite living right on the equator.

Take a Galapagos cruise to see these unique penguins, Marine Iguanas, and a host of other interesting wildlife.