Penguins

"Wildlife Monographs", a series of fabulous, full-colour books led by stunning photographic images with fresh, informative and vivid new text charting our favourite wild animals on their home terrain.

The first eight volumes in the series track the lives of elephants, cheetahs, sharks, leopards, giant pandas, polar bears, penguins and monkeys of the Amazon.

The spellbinding, intimate images captured by some of the worlds premier wildlife photographers breathe with vivid insight and a shared sense of being there, being closer than most of us can ever hope to be.

With bright, easy to read and compelling text that successfully combines fascinating information with accessibility, these are books to give as gifts, to treasure and to share across every age from eight to eighty.

Here's a glimpse of some of the worlds increasingly rare and endangered species, captured on camera in their natural habitats.

If we aren't careful, they may not be there for much longer, and each volume is also a plea for protection, backed by leading campaigners.

Penguins are flightless seabirds to be found in the Southern Hemisphere.They have dark upperparts with a mainly white breast and flipper-like wings used for swimming. There are eleven known species in Antarctica, the largest of which is the Emperor, around 120 cm tall and weighing between 20 and 40 kg.

Penguins are fairly widely distributed, forming breeding colonies, varying from year to year, of anything from 10,000 to a few hundred pairs.

They are fortunate that there are no land-based predatory animals in Antarctica, no polar bears or ice foxes.

As a result, penguins are not afraid of humans and one can approach a colony as close as 3-4 metres before they react.

Fritz Polking has spent hours photographing these remarkable creatures.

This book features stunning full colour photography; and is presented in high gloss paperback with flaps, with an engaging text.