The little penguin is a species of penguin from New Zealand. They are commonly known as fairy penguins, little blue penguins or blue penguins owing to their slate-blue plumage and are also known by their Māori name kororā, and their Boonwurrung name Djinan Yawa-dji Goyeep.
Seabirds are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same environmental problems and feeding niches have resulted in similar adaptations. The first seabirds evolved in the Cretaceous period, and modern seabird families emerged in the Paleogene.
The chinstrap penguin is a species of penguin that inhabits a variety of islands and shores in the Southern Pacific and the Antarctic Oceans. Its name stems from the narrow black band under its head, which makes it appear as if it were wearing a black helmet, making it easy to identify. Other common names include ringed penguin, bearded penguin, and stonecracker penguin, due to its loud, harsh call.
The African penguin, also known as Cape penguin or South African penguin, is a species of penguin confined to southern African waters. Like all penguins, it is flightless, with a streamlined body and wings stiffened and flattened into flippers for a marine habitat. Adults weigh an average of 2.2–3.5 kg (4.9–7.7 lb) and are 60–70 cm (24–28 in) tall. The species has distinctive pink patches of skin above the eyes and a black facial mask. The body's upper parts are black and sharply delineated from the white underparts, which are spotted and marked with a black band.
The erect-crested penguin is a penguin endemic to the New Zealand region and only breeds on the Bounty and Antipodes Islands. It has black upper parts, white underparts and a yellow eye stripe and crest. It spends the winter at sea and little is known about its biology and breeding habits. Populations are believed to have declined during the last few decades of the twentieth century, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has listed it as being "endangered".
The Humboldt penguin is a medium-sized penguin. It resides in South America, its range mainly contains most of coastal Peru. Its nearest relatives are the African penguin, the Magellanic penguin and the Galápagos penguin. The Humboldt penguin and the cold water current it swims in both are named after the explorer Alexander von Humboldt. The species is listed as vulnerable by the IUCN with no population recovery plan in place. The current population is composed of 32,000 mature individuals and is going down. It is a migrant species.
The Magellanic penguin is a South American penguin, breeding in coastal Patagonia, including Argentina, Chile, and the Falkland Islands, with some migrating to Brazil and Uruguay, where they are occasionally seen as far north as Espirito Santo. Vagrants have been found in El Salvador, the Avian Island in Antarctica, Australia, and New Zealand. It is the most numerous of the Spheniscus banded penguins. Its nearest relatives are the African penguin, the Humboldt penguin, and the Galápagos penguins. The Magellanic penguin was named after Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who spotted the birds in 1520. The species is listed as being of Least Concern by the IUCN.
The banded penguins are penguins that belong to the genus Spheniscus. There are four living species, all with similar banded plumage patterns. They are sometimes also known as "jack-ass penguins" due to their loud locator calls sounding similar to a donkey braying. Common traits include a band of black that runs around their bodies bordering their black dorsal coloring, black beaks with a small vertical white band, distinct spots on their bellies, and a small patch of unfeathered or thinly feathered skin around their eyes and underdeveloped fluff sack that can be either white or pink. All members of this genus lay eggs and raise their young in nests situated in burrows or natural depressions in the earth.
Punta Tombo is a peninsula into the Atlantic Ocean 110 km (68 mi) south of Trelew in Chubut Province, Argentina, where there is a large colony of Magellanic penguins - the largest such colony in Argentina. It is a short distance north of Camarones.
Los Pingüinos Natural Monument is located 35 km (22 mi) northeast of Punta Arenas, Chile. Magdalena Island and the Marta Island, situated in the middle of the Strait of Magellan, is the main part of this natural monument. The largest penguin colonies of south Chile are on this island, including an estimated 60,000 breeding pairs of the Magellanic penguin.
Volunteer Point is a headland on the east coast of East Falkland, in the Falkland Islands, north-northeast of Stanley, and east of Johnson's Harbour and Berkeley Sound. It lies at the end of a narrow peninsula, which protects Volunteer Lagoon. It received its name in 1815, when the sealing ship Volunteer left a boat's crew there to collect seal skins while it went in search of opportunities elsewhere. Four years later, on 13 February 1820, the French research vessel L'Uranie struck a submerged rock just off the point but stayed afloat long enough to be beached in Berkeley Sound. All on board survived, including the Captain's wife, Rose de Freycinet, who recorded the incident in her diary.
Magdalena Island is a small island in the Strait of Magellan, Chile. It is occupied year round by a small force of Park Rangers: 6 in summer, 3 in winter. "Newbie" or first-year rangers are not permitted to volunteer for harsh winter duty. They barrack in the single substantial building attached to the Magdalena Island light. The island is part of the End of the World Route, a scenic touristic route.
The Galápagos penguin is a penguin endemic to the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador. It is the only penguin found north of the equator. Most inhabit Fernandina Island and the west coast of Isabela Island. The cool waters of the Humboldt and Cromwell Currents allow it to survive despite the tropical latitude. The Galápagos penguin is one of the banded penguins, the other species of which live mostly on the coasts of Africa and mainland South America. It is one of the smallest species of penguin in the world. Because of their warm environment, Galápagos penguins have developed techniques to stay cool. The feathers on their back, flippers, and head are black, and they have a white belly and a stripe looping from their eyes down to their neck and chin. Each penguin keeps only one mate, and breeds year-round. Their nests are typically in caves and crevices as protection against predators and the harsh environment. The Galápagos penguin has a lifespan of about 15 to 20 years, but due to predation, life expectancy in the wild could be significantly reduced.
Kristine McDivitt Tompkins is the president and co-founder of Tompkins Conservation, an American conservationist, former CEO of Patagonia, Inc., a UN Patron of Protected Areas from 2018-2022. She has committed her career to protecting and restoring Chile and Argentina’s wild beauty and biodiversity by creating national parks, restoring the wildlife, inspiring activism, and fostering economic vitality as a result of conservation. Having protected over 14 million acres of parklands in Chile and Argentina through Tompkins Conservation and its partners, Kristine and Douglas Tompkins, her late husband who died in 2015, are considered some of the most successful national park-oriented philanthropists in history.
West Island is a 10 hectares granite island lying 0.8 kilometres off the southern coast of the Fleurieu Peninsula, South Australia, 7 kilometres south-west of the town of Victor Harbor. It rises to a maximum height of about 40 metres in the south-west. Its main conservation value lies in its seabird colonies.
Kerry-Jayne Wilson was a New Zealand biologist and lecturer in ecology at Lincoln University in the Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
The Australian little penguin, also called the fairy penguin, is a species of penguin from Australia and the Otago region of New Zealand. The species was described as Spheniscusnovaehollandiae in 1826. It was later reclassified as Eudyptulaminornovaehollandiae, a subspecies of the little penguin. After a 2016 study, Eudyptula novaehollandiae was again recognized as a distinct species.
Barbara Wienecke is a senior research scientist with the Australian Antarctic Division. She is a seabird ecologist who uses satellite tracking to investigate seabird population dynamics and ecology. Wienecke has played a key role in enhancing the quality of, and overseeing the implementation of, a number of Antarctic Specially Protected Area management plans for wildlife concentrations in East Antarctica.
The Prince Edward Island Marine Protected Area is an offshore conservation region near the Prince Edward Islands in the exclusive economic zone of South Africa, nearly 2,000 km southeast of South Africa in the Indian Ocean. The MPA provides habitat for seals, killer whales, breeding seabirds and Patagonian toothfish.
Julia Parrish is an ecologist and conservation biologist at the University of Washington known for her research on seabirds and for her leadership in citizen science. She is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
