They have that too, but less of it.

The feathers work almost like a dry suit. Trapping a layer of air to insulate their bodies and keep them exceptionally warm, even as they swim into water that's below freezing temps.

They can't dive as deep though. Air is compressibly by the quickly increasing water pressure, so the cold will sap their body heat faster as a penguin dives deeper.

Fat isn't compressible, so seals don't suffer the same problem.

Yes they just borrowed its skin for a while, it was happy to be involved

I bet the locals will give you looks coming all the way to Antarctica to put thermocouples up penguin butts, but hey, science.

His condition is stable

This is a very old sample of penguin skin in a museum. But to answer your question, yes, they killed the bird.

It died peacefully after a life that was longer and happier than average, surrounded by loved ones, and having come to terms with its mortality beforehand.

I think it would be too fragile for most purposes. Unless you can make missing feathers grow back like a living penguin it would wear out quite fast.

Not yet but hopefully soon because penguin coats are really expensive.

Nice try Cruella

Well, it looks more like leather and as terrible as this practice is, society very much encourages displaying leather.

I work in a penguin museum