Did you know that penguins have knees? Did you know that they can dive down 1,700 feet and hold their breath for 22 minutes?

Youngsters at the Boxford library learned these and other penguin facts during a visit by "the Penguin Lady," Dyan deNapoli. A penguin expert, deNapoli managed the penguin colony at the New England Aquarium for nine years and has studied penguins all over the world, including helping rescue penguins during an oil spill clean-up in South Africa in 2000.

She gave her educational presentation in a trivia game-show format, and the children in attendance had a great time answering questions and learning about the tuxedoed birds. Many excited hands shot in the air to answer each trivia question, and deNapoli passed out prizes for each correct answer.

After the trivia game-show, deNapoli lead the children in folding origami penguins to take home.

Jay Casey, 5, and his friend Carter Wallace, 4, were all smiles after deNapoli's presentation and were very excited to make an origami penguin.

"I loved it," said Casey with a grin, who knew many of the answers to deNapoli's game show questions.

"I learned that they whistle (to communicate). And I got to hold the (stuffed) shark," said Wallace.

During her presentation, deNapoli projected photos of different animals on the screen, and asked the children to identify them. As she brought up different pictures -- a shark, octopus, fox, whale, hawk and other animals -- deNapoli passed out a stuffed representation of that animal to the child who correctly identified the photo.

After she had passed out half a dozen stuffed animals, she asked the children to decide which ones they thought were natural predators of penguins.

deNapoli brought an actual-size, blow-up emperor penguin, the largest penguin in the world, for the children to see how big they are. The blow-up penguin was so big it almost came up to her shoulder.

When she asked the audience a trivia question about how adult penguins feed their babies, a young boy in the audience said, "oh, this is going to be gross." deNapoli laughed and explained the concept of regurgitation, and that penguins can store fish they've already eaten up to two weeks for their young to eat.

The children erupted into laughter when deNapoli explained that penguins can shoot their guano up to five feet. She showed a photo of a small penguin doing just that, in order to keep his nest clean.

deNapoli's visit was sponsored by the Friends of Boxford Libraries. Children's Librarian Josh Kennedy had also put out a display of books about penguins for the children that afternoon, and many were taken home by Boxford's young penguin enthusiasts.



Did you know?

Here are some penguin facts Boxford youngsters learned from Dyan deNapoli, the Penguin Lady, during her visit to the East Boxford Village Library last week:

Penguins are a flightless bird, and live only in the Southern hemisphere

Polar bears don't eat penguins, because they live in the Northern hemisphere

The largest penguin in the world is the emperor penguin

Penguins swim by flapping their wings like birds that fly in the air, and steer using their feet as rudders

Penguins eat squid, fish and krill

Penguins sneeze all the time to expel extra salt that builds up from the salty ocean water

Penguins have textured tongues, like cats, that grab the scales of the fish they eat

Each penguin has a unique voice, which makes penguin colonies very noisy. They use their distinct call to communicate and locate one another. While deNapoli worked with the penguin colony at the New England Aquarium, "I got to know the voices of all 70 penguins in that exhibit," she said.