Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Sphenisciformes > Spheniscidae > Eudyptula > Eudyptula minor

Eudyptula minor (Little Penguin)

Synonyms: Aptenodytes minor

Wikipedia Abstract

The little penguin (Eudyptula minor) is the smallest species of penguin. It grows to an average of 33 cm (13 in) in height and 43 cm (17 in) in length, though specific measurements vary by subspecies. It is found on the coastlines of southern Australia and New Zealand, with possible records from Chile. In Australia, they are often called fairy penguins because of their small size. In New Zealand, they are more commonly known as little blue penguins or blue penguins owing to their slate-blue plumage. They are also known by their Māori name: kororā.
View Wikipedia Record: Eudyptula minor

Infraspecies

Eudyptula minor albosignata (White-flippered Penguin)
Eudyptula minor chathamensis (Chatham little blue penguin)
Eudyptula minor iredalei (Blue penguin) (Attributes)
Eudyptula minor minor (Blue penguin) (Attributes)
Eudyptula minor novaehollandiae (Blue penguin) (Attributes)
Eudyptula minor variabilis (Blue penguin)

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
8
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
33
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 16.9375
EDGE Score: 2.88689
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Clutch Size [3]  2
Clutches / Year [2]  2
Fledging [2]  46 days
Incubation [5]  39 days
Mating Display [3]  Ground display
Mating System [3]  Monogamy
Maximum Longevity [5]  16 years
Snout to Vent Length [2]  17 inches (43 cm)
Water Biome [1]  Coastal
Adult Weight [2]  2.527 lbs (1.146 kg)
Birth Weight [3]  52 grams
Female Weight [2]  2.392 lbs (1.085 kg)
Male Weight [2]  2.661 lbs (1.207 kg)
Weight Dimorphism [2]  11.2 %
Diet [4]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Piscivore
Diet - Fish [4]  80 %
Diet - Invertibrates [4]  20 %
Forages - Underwater [4]  100 %
Female Maturity [2]  1 year 12 months

Ecoregions

Name Countries Ecozone Biome Species Report Climate Land
Use
Chatham Island temperate forests New Zealand Australasia Temperate Broadleaf and Mixed Forests  

Protected Areas

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
New Zealand New Zealand No
Southwest Australia Australia No

Prey / Diet

Prey / Diet Overlap

Predators

Neophoca cinerea (Australian Sealion)[7]

Consumers

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
♦ 5Intrinsic aging-related mortality in birds, Robert E. Ricklefs, JOURNAL OF AVIAN BIOLOGY 31: 103–111. Copenhagen 2000
♦ 6Yolanda Van Heezik (1990) Diets of yellow-eyed, Fiordland crested, and little blue penguins breeding sympatrically on Codfish Island, New Zealand, New Zealand Journal of Zoology, 17:4, 543-548
♦ 7Jorrit 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.
♦ 8Diet of little penguins, Eudyptula minor, from Penguin Island, Western Australia, NI Klomp and RD Wooller, Australian Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research 39(5) 633 - 639
♦ 9Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
♦ 10International Flea Database
♦ 11Species Interactions of Australia Database, Atlas of Living Australia, Version ala-csv-2012-11-19
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
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