# Do any penguins live in the northern hemisphere?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-penguins-live-in-the-northern-hemisphere/968794
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [July 29, 2022, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-penguins-live-in-the-northern-hemisphere/968794 "2022-07-29T19:14:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 19
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2022, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-penguins-live-in-the-northern-hemisphere/968794/1 "2022-07-29T19:14:47Z")
I stumbled into an online argument about it. Some were saying no, some were saying yes. The ‘yes’ camp were saying there were some living on the Galapagos Islands and some of the islands extend north of the equator - but stopped short of claiming that penguins live on those islands.
Googling a bit kind of reinforced that. So, do any penguins actually live in the northern hemisphere?
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2022, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-penguins-live-in-the-northern-hemisphere/968794/2 "2022-07-29T19:20:42Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#):
>
> The ‘yes’ camp were saying there were some living on the Galapagos Islands and some of the islands extend north of the equator - but stopped short of claiming that penguins live on those islands.
The [Wikipedia article on the Galapagos penguin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galapagos_penguin) says this:
> [@](#):
>
> It is the only penguin found north of the [equator](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equator).[[4]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galapagos_penguin#cite_note-4) Most inhabit [Fernandina Island](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernandina_Island) and the west coast of [Isabela Island](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabela_Island_(Gal%C3%A1pagos)).
Despite the first statement, the two specific islands which are then mentioned both appear to lie south of the Equator.
(And, yeah, Wikipedia is crowdsourced, so that first statement should be treated with a grain of salt, unless it’s linked to a solid cite.)
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2022, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-penguins-live-in-the-northern-hemisphere/968794/3 "2022-07-29T19:20:49Z")
Loads of them in Zoos and Aquariums. Very popular exhibit animals.
But the Galapagos Penguins probably do count if just barely.
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2022, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-penguins-live-in-the-northern-hemisphere/968794/4 "2022-07-29T19:22:52Z")
[Why Are There No Penguins In The North Pole? | Penguins International](https://www.penguinsinternational.org/2019/07/16/why-are-there-no-penguins-in-the-north-pole/#:~:text=There%20is%20one%20African%20Penguin,so%20close%20to%20the%20equator).
_There is one African Penguin (Spheniscus demursus ) and 3 species that inhabit the Americas with the Galapagos Penguins (Sphendiscus mendiculus ) living just slightly in the Northern Hemisphere, living so close to the equator._
For some trivia, there was a “penguin” living in the North, but it went extinct in about the 1850’s, due to 1. The Little Ice age, 2. Their breeding island blowing up due to volcanic activity and 3- Hunting by man. This was the Great Auk, _Pinguinus impennis_, which was the original “penguin” .
It looked quite a bit like a southern Penguin, but was not closely related.
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2022, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-penguins-live-in-the-northern-hemisphere/968794/5 "2022-07-29T19:32:20Z")
Nevermind.
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### Author:  [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2022, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-penguins-live-in-the-northern-hemisphere/968794/6 "2022-07-29T19:47:10Z")
This reminds me of the bugs bunny cartoon where he tries to return a penguin home.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2022, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-penguins-live-in-the-northern-hemisphere/968794/7 "2022-07-29T19:53:45Z")
“Hoboken???!”
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### Author:  [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2022, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-penguins-live-in-the-northern-hemisphere/968794/8 "2022-07-29T19:58:53Z")
Curiously, finding a detailed map with those islands on it and an equator line is challenging (well, for me and my google-fu challenged self). The ones I did find seemed show Fernandina Island south of that line but they didn’t appear to be ultra-precise.
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### Author:  [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2022, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-penguins-live-in-the-northern-hemisphere/968794/9 "2022-07-29T20:12:58Z")
The penguins I saw in Galapagos were south of the Equator. Whether there are a few individusls or a colony north of the Equator I don’t know, but I’d think my Galapagos-native tour guide would have mentioned it as a marvelous fact.
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### Author:  [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2022, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-penguins-live-in-the-northern-hemisphere/968794/10 "2022-07-29T21:54:08Z")
“Ohhhh, I’m dyin’, again!”
“Do any penguins live in the northern hemisphere?”
Not since the polar bears finished them off.
> **[Some Larsons | Far side comics, The far side, The far side gallery](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/70157706668893643/)**
>
> Mar 29, 2014 - Discover the magic of the internet at Imgur, a community powered entertainment destination. Lift your spirits with funny jokes, trending memes, entertaining gifs, inspiring stories, viral videos, and so much more.
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### Author:  [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2022, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-penguins-live-in-the-northern-hemisphere/968794/11 "2022-07-29T22:01:17Z")
On the face of it, that cartoon makes no sense…
Who ever heard of a penguin named Edgar?
😁
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### Author:  [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2022, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-penguins-live-in-the-northern-hemisphere/968794/12 "2022-07-29T22:05:25Z")
Well, if it came from the zoo, it’d have **Property of the Zoo** stamped on it!
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### Author:  [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2022, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-penguins-live-in-the-northern-hemisphere/968794/13 "2022-07-30T16:26:15Z")
It looks like Fernandina Island at best doesn’t get closer than 15.7 minutes south of the equator. Isabela Island is in both hemispheres. Go onto google maps and look at Isabela Island. The eye of the seahorse is a hair north of the equator.
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### Author:  [@ThisSpaceForRent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisSpaceForRent)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2022, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-penguins-live-in-the-northern-hemisphere/968794/14 "2022-07-30T23:48:14Z")
Chilly Willie
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### Author:  [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2022, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-penguins-live-in-the-northern-hemisphere/968794/15 "2022-07-31T14:55:09Z")
Is there a sub-text to this cartoon I just now got? Like, they’re really at the South Pole and Mr. Polar Bear somehow scrounged up enough cash for plane fare?
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2022, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-penguins-live-in-the-northern-hemisphere/968794/16 "2022-07-31T19:47:35Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#):
>
> Is there a sub-text to this cartoon I just now got?
There’s not really any funny subtext to it, other than this:
In the collection _The Prehistory of the Far Side_, Larson admitted that it was only after that comic was published, and he got a number of letters from biologists and readers, that he realized that penguins and polar bears don’t live in the same place.
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### Author:  [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2022, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-penguins-live-in-the-northern-hemisphere/968794/17 "2022-07-31T19:53:21Z")
Yeah, that sounds like him.
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### Author:  [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2022, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-penguins-live-in-the-northern-hemisphere/968794/18 "2022-07-31T20:20:27Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#):
>
> There’s not really any funny subtext to it, other than this:
>
> In the collection _The Prehistory of the Far Side_, Larson admitted that it was only after that comic was published, and he got a number of letters from biologists and readers, that he realized that penguins and polar bears don’t live in the same place.
I find this revelation funny as hell. I always had assumed that the polar bear/penguin impossibility intentionally put an extra dose of absurdity to an already absurd joke.
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### Author:  [@3AxisCtrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3AxisCtrl)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2022, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-penguins-live-in-the-northern-hemisphere/968794/19 "2022-08-01T09:24:33Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#):
>
> The [Wikipedia article on the Galapagos penguin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galapagos_penguin) says this:
>
> > [@](#):
> >
> > It is the only penguin found north of the [equator](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equator).[[4]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galapagos_penguin#cite_note-4) Most inhabit [Fernandina Island](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernandina_Island) and the west coast of [Isabela Island](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabela_Island_(Gal%C3%A1pagos)).
>
> Despite the first statement, the two specific islands which are then mentioned both appear to lie south of the Equator.
The northernmost point of Isabela Island is about 18km north of the Equator. Maps of the Galapagos Penguin’s range show it occupying the entire west coast of this island, to the northern tip.