(elmvilla/iStock)
First, it is necessary to clarify that penguins do not live exactly at the South Pole, but in coastal regions of the Antarctic continent.
Scientists believe that the presence of these funny-walking birds in the southern hemisphere is related to an event that occurred 175 million years ago. Until then, our planet had a single block of land surrounded by water. With the separation of the continents, the waterfowl population, which lived more or less together, also split and, over time, they adapted better to the region where they stayed.
The curious thing is that, although penguins do not live at the North Pole, there was a bird very similar to them called the giant alcante, which is now extinct.
The polar bear is a direct descendant of the brown bear, a large mammal that only evolved in the northern hemisphere. Polar bears depend on cold water to survive and, as the oceans have never been freezing from the north to the south of the planet, they have not been able to migrate towards Antarctica.
If that happened one day, they would have a pleasant surprise: they would share their habitat with thousands of penguins, which, fatally, would end up becoming one of their favorite prey.