The recent viral image of a penguin walking toward a mountain in Greenland with US President Donald Trump, shared by the White House to promote Arctic policy, has sparked a global geography lesson. While the image was meant to be symbolic, it highlighted a biological impossibility: Penguins do not live in the Arctic. A Penguin in Greenland? Donald Trump’s Viral Arctic Meme Blunder.

But why? Both the Arctic (Greenland/North Pole) and Antarctica (South Pole) are icy, frozen wastelands teeming with fish. Why did nature put polar bears in the North and penguins in the South, never to meet? Here is the deep-dive answer involving evolution, "thermal barriers," and a failed experiment from 1936.

Donald Trump Viral Penguin Meme:

The "Invisible Wall": The Thermal Barrier

The primary reason penguins are not in Greenland is simple: They can't get there. Penguins evolved in the Southern Hemisphere (Gondwana) roughly 60 million years ago. Over millions of years, they adapted specifically to cold waters. To reach the Arctic, they would have to swim across the Equator.

The Thermal Barrier: The warm tropical waters of the equator act as an impassable wall for penguins. The high temperatures would cause them to overheat and die before they could cross into the cooler waters of the north.

The Exception: The Galapagos Penguin is the only species that lives near the equator, but even it relies on the cold Humboldt Current to survive. It cannot venture further north into the warm Pacific.

Bears vs. Penguins

Even if you flew a colony of penguins to Greenland (as some have tried), they likely wouldn't survive long due to predators.

Antarctica (The Safe Haven): The South Pole is a unique continent because it has zero land predators. There are no bears, wolves, or foxes. This safety allowed penguins to lose their ability to fly and develop their clumsy, energy-efficient "waddle" without fear of being eaten on land.

The Arctic (The Danger Zone): Greenland is home to Polar Bears, Arctic Foxes, and Wolves. A flightless bird that waddles slowly on ice would be an effortless snack for these hunters.

Survival of the Fliers: This is why Arctic birds (like Puffins and Guillemots) retained the ability to fly; they need an escape route from land predators.

The "Penguin" That Was Already There: The Great Auk

Ironically, the Arctic did have its own "penguin" once. The Great Auk (now extinct) was a flightless, black-and-white bird that lived in the North Atlantic, including Greenland. In fact, the word "penguin" was originally used to describe the Great Auk (Pinguinus impennis) before it was applied to the southern birds we know today.

Convergent Evolution: The Great Auk and the Penguin are a classic case of convergent evolution—two unrelated species evolving the same traits (flightlessness, swimming ability, tuxedo colors) to survive in similar environments.

The Tragedy: Unlike the isolated penguins of Antarctica, the Great Auk lived close to humans. They were hunted to extinction for their down and meat. The last known pair was killed in 1844.

The Failed Experiment to Introduce Penguines: Norway, 1936

We actually know what happens when you put penguins in the Arctic because humans tried it. In 1936, Norwegian explorer Lars Christensen introduced King Penguins to the Lofoten Islands in Norway to see if they could establish a colony "for the fatherland".

The Result: It was a disaster. The penguins struggled with the different ecosystem and predators.

The "Demon" Incident: One of the released penguins wandered into a local farmyard, where a woman, terrified by the strange creature she had never seen before, reportedly killed it, believing it was a demon or a freak of nature.

Extinction: The last of these transplanted penguins was sighted in 1949, proving that you cannot simply copy-paste nature.

The "Nihilist Penguin" belongs strictly to the South. While the ice in Greenland might look the same, the ecosystem is fundamentally different. Nature separated the poles for a reason: The North belongs to the Bears (Arctic comes from Arktos, Greek for "Bear"), and the South belongs to the Birds (Antarctic means "Opposite of the Bear"). Know How to Create Viral Penguin Walking Towards a Mountain Wallpaper With AI Tools. 

So any image showing them together is not just a meme, it's a biological fiction.

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(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 25, 2026 01:46 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).