Senses of penguins

Sight

• • Penguins are more or less emmetropic in air and water.
• • Penguins can perceive blue, green and violet colors well.

Sense of smell

• • Penguins react on the chemical substance dimethyl sulphide which is an indirect indication for their prey.
• • The meaning of the sense of smell in social context is not well investigated yet.

Sense of taste

• • Probably, penguins are able to perceive salty and sour tastes only.

Hearing

• • The range of audible frequencies of penguins (100 to 15000 Hertz) agrees with that of a young human being (16 bis 20000 Hertz) approximately.
• • Hearing is very important in social context: Because of individual calls partners and chicks can regognize their family members.

Touch

• • I assume that penguins sense touches but I did not find scientific publications about this topic yet.