Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Sphenisciformes > Spheniscidae > Aptenodytes > Aptenodytes forsteri

Aptenodytes forsteri (Emperor Penguin)

Wikipedia Abstract

The emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) is the tallest and heaviest of all living penguin species and is endemic to Antarctica. The male and female are similar in plumage and size, reaching 122 cm (48 in) in height and weighing from 22 to 45 kg (49 to 99 lb). The dorsal side and head are black and sharply delineated from the white belly, pale-yellow breast and bright-yellow ear patches. Like all penguins it is flightless, with a streamlined body, and wings stiffened and flattened into flippers for a marine habitat.
View Wikipedia Record: Aptenodytes forsteri

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
8
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
44
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 17.2393
EDGE Score: 3.59672
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Clutch Size [3]  1
Clutches / Year [2]  1
Fledging [2]  5 months 8 days
Incubation [1]  64 days
Mating Display [3]  Ground display
Mating System [3]  Monogamy
Maximum Longevity [1]  20 years
Migration [1]  Intracontinental
Snout to Vent Length [2]  3.772 feet (115 cm)
Speed [7]  4.653 MPH (2.08 m/s)
Water Biome [1]  Pelagic, Coastal
Adult Weight [2]  74.627 lbs (33.85 kg)
Birth Weight [3]  425 grams
Female Weight [6]  65.037 lbs (29.50 kg)
Male Weight [6]  84.217 lbs (38.20 kg)
Weight Dimorphism [6]  29.5 %
Diet [4]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Piscivore
Diet - Fish [4]  90 %
Diet - Invertibrates [4]  10 %
Forages - Underwater [4]  100 %
Female Maturity [5]  5 years
Male Maturity [5]  5 years 6 months

Ecoregions

Name Countries Ecozone Biome Species Report Climate Land
Use
Southern Indian Ocean Islands tundra South Africa, France, Australia Antarctic Tundra    

Protected Areas

Name IUCN Category Area acres Location Species Website Climate Land Use
Palmer LTER Site Long Term Ecological Research   Antarctica    

Ecosystems

Prey / Diet

Prey / Diet Overlap

Predators

Hydrurga leptonyx (Leopard seal)[12]
Orcinus orca (Killer Whale)[12]
Stercorarius maccormicki (South Polar Skua)[11]

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Austrogoniodes mawsoni[14]
Contracaecum prevosti <Unverified Name>[15]
Parorchites zederi[15]
Tetrabothrius wrighti[15]

Range Map

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org
♦ 2Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 3Terje Lislevand, Jordi Figuerola, and Tamás Székely. 2007. Avian body sizes in relation to fecundity, mating system, display behavior, and resource sharing. Ecology 88:1605
♦ 4Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 5de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 6Marchant, S.; Higgins, PJ (eds.) 1990. The handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic birds, Vol. 1., ratites to ducks. Oxford University Press, Melbourne
♦ 7Alerstam T, Rosén M, Bäckman J, Ericson PGP, Hellgren O (2007) Flight Speeds among Bird Species: Allometric and Phylogenetic Effects. PLoS Biol 5(8): e197. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0050197
♦ 8CephBase - Cephalopod (Octopus, Squid, Cuttlefish and Nautilus) Database
♦ 9Food of emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) in the western Ross Sea, Antarctica, Y. Cherel and G. L. Kooyman, Marine Biology (1998) 130: 335-344
♦ 10The role of notothenioid fish in the food web of the Ross Sea shelf waters: a review, M. La Mesa, J. T. Eastman, M. Vacchi, Polar Biol (2004) 27: 321–338
♦ 11Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 12Who's Eating Who
♦ 13A balanced model of the food web of the Ross Sea, Antarctica, M.H. Pinkerton, S.M. Hanchet, J. Bradford-Grieve, CCAMLR Science, Vol. 17 (2010)
♦ 14Species Interactions of Australia Database, Atlas of Living Australia, Version ala-csv-2012-11-19
♦ 15Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0