INTRODUCTION When I first started researching this book, Google accidentally auto-suggested the question: "Are penguins fish or birds?" I spat my tea out laughing! But for the search engine to do that, a lot of people must have asked that very question. And penguins are pretty mysterious: cute, but actually very odd and distinct in their own way. Mankind has always ascribed seabirds with a certain mystical quality, owing to their prowess in the air, their ease in and on water, their migrational comings and goings, and their sheer volume. They are souls of lost sailors, saints, storm-bringers, omens, witches, and warriors. They are also easy to catch, at risk from man-made as well as natural disasters . no wonder many are endangered. Hopefully in this book you will discover that there is a lot more to penguins than being cute. In fact, they are one of the hardiest souls on the planet, evolving millions of years ago to thrive in some of Earth's toughest and loneliest environments.

And they are definitely not fish!.