Essay Sample about Penguins: The Little Baddies of the Arctic

📌Category: Animals, Environment
📌Words: 716
📌Pages: 3
📌Published: 22 March 2022

What do you think of when you hear the word penguin? Do you imagine a small aquatic bird that lives in the arctic or do you think of a sports team? When I hear that word, I picture a small adorable aquatic bird that is extremely intelligent and will do whatever it takes to protect its family. This is due to the influences of watching various movies about these small birds such as the films Happy Feet, and Penguins of Madagascar. Penguins of Madagascar which will be the focus of this paper portrays four highly intelligent penguins with high functioning ability to think on the fly, demonstrate comradery, and communicate with other species. These penguins are highly competent members of the Dreamwork version of Animal Avengers, saving their species in their spinoff movie. This paper will ponder the question, of whether penguins are actually intelligent enough to communicate and work together with others in taking down animals criminals.

Communication is vital for all beings as it allows for an exchange of information from one being to another. This film demonstrates communication quite well as it depicts the penguins being able to speak with each other, in order to effectively survive. In the movie, there are several examples of the animals speaking with each other in order to come up with various plans. In addition, this film also demonstrates the penguins being able to effectively communicate with other species such as a polar bear and octopus to name a couple. Now, it is time to investigate whether it is actually scientifically possible for the penguins to be able to communicate with each other and with other species. According to Sea World, Penguins have demonstrated that they do possess the ability to communicate with each other primarily through vocalization and displays. It turns out that penguins have vocalization by using loud noises and barking to convey information. Furthermore, penguins are also able to communicate through displays which essentially is them performing physical behaviors. Ultimately penguins do this to communicate nesting territories, mating information, nest relief rituals, partners, and child recognition and defense against intruders. This movie did demonstrate the penguins' communication and at times it was even scientifically accurate as the animals did use a bit of display throughout the film.  Furthermore, now that it has been addressed that the penguins can communicate with each other, it is now time to figure out whether a group of penguins can realistically work together in a group. According to the Bird-Watching of the United States, it does appear that penguins are able to communicate with each other and employ teamwork. In addition, it also mentions that penguins use communication for hunting and that these animals have acquired interpersonal skills to aid in solving complicated challenges in the group. To continue, it also mentions that penguin uses a hunting strategy that necessitates a fast amount of information processing, which allows them to plan out a strategy to capture the fish with a group. This does reinforce the film idea that the little baddies are able to communicate and work together, as well as even adapt at various moments.  

Lastly, it is now time to briefly find out if the penguins would realistically be able to effectively communicate with the other species that have been shown in the movie. The penguins were shown to be able to communicate and understand various species of animals including a wolf, polar bear, and an octopus to name a few. However, the film also demonstrated that the penguins were unable to understand the various squids which served as grunts to the villain and the seal ions which served as temporary antagonists. According to a Wonderopolis study, it does appear that animals can communicate with each other through various nonverbal examples such as animals dancing, flicking their tails, and marking their territory. It was mentioned that it was possible for iguanas to communicate vocally with flycatchers in Madagascar and that the animals were able to hear warning calls from each other to avoid being hunted. Unfortunately, there were not many instances in the movie of animals using nonverbal communication and instead, it focused on verbal communication, so sadly the movie failed in that aspect.

There of course are some discrepancies and not at all accurate depictions of communication in relation to other species, however, there is not a lot of research that has been conducted on interspecies communication to really suffice to say it is completely inaccurate. Ultimately, in the end, the film did a decent job of presenting communication in the penguin species and even demonstrating the scientific and real word accuracies associated with this vital cognitive ability.

+
x
Remember! This is just a sample.

You can order a custom paper by our expert writers

Order now
By clicking “Receive Essay”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement. We will occasionally send you account related emails.