The smallest species of penguin, the little penguin grows to an average height of 13 inches and can be found on the coasts of southern Australia and New Zealand. With about 350,000 to 600,000 of the animals in the wild, the species isn’t endangered; however, people still go to great lengths to protect the birds from predation. In some parts of Australia, Maremma sheepdogs have been trained to guard penguin colonies, and in Sydney, snipers have been deployed to protect little penguins from fox and dog attacks.

 

Famous fowl

Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux operating system, was once pecked by a little penguin, which inspired him to use a penguin as the Linux mascot.