Animalia Life

Pygoscelis adeliae
TAXONOMY
Catarrhactes adeliae Hombron and Jacquinot, 1841, Adelie Land.
OTHER COMMON NAMES
French: Manchot d’Adйlie; German: Adeliepinguin; Spanish: Pingьino Adelia.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Female weight 8.6–10.5 lb (3,890–4,740 g); male 9.6–11.8 lb (4,340–5,350 g). Back, tail, and head (including face) are blue-black; underparts are white. Distinctive white eye ring. Feathers cover half of bill, which is black with orange base. Eyes are brown. Legs and feet are dull white to pink with black soles.
DISTRIBUTION
Circumpolar, associated with pack ice of Antarctic Zone. Breeds on coasts of the Antarctic continent and surrounding islands; non-breeding
DISTRIBUTION
is not well known.
HABITAT
Within home range, they breed wherever land is ice-free and access from the sea is feasible.
BEHAVIOR
Male and female defend territory vigorously; often fight with neighbors. Birds signal apprehension by raising head feathers. Common threat display is a sideways stare with crest raised and eyes rolled downward.
FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET
Take mostly krill but also fish and cephalopods. During incubation, the bird not tending the nest may make a very long foraging trip, traveling more than 93 mi (150 km) from the colony over the course of 9–25 days. One study of birds at Hope Bay documented a maximum dive of 558 ft (170 m); estimated prey capture rate was 1,150 krill per foraging trip (7.2 krill per minute).
REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY
Well studied. Monogamous, often return repeatedly to same nest site. Nest in large colonies of up to 200,000 pairs. Build nests of small stones. Considerable energy devoted to stone searching, stone stealing, and rearranging stones in nest. Two eggs laid; parents alternate incubation duties (sometimes with egg on feet) for 32–24 days. Young brooded for 22 days, then join small crиches; fed by parents until they leave colony at 50–60 days.
CONSERVATION STATUS
Not threatened. Stable or increasing; population estimated in 1993 at 2,610,000 breeding pairs. Susceptible to disturbance from human activity.
SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS
Ornithologist Robert Cushman Murphy called Adelies “the type and epitome of the penguin family.” Adelies are responsible for the habitual comparison of penguins to little men in evening clothes.

Other popular Animals