Pygoscelis adeliae

Life-forms

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Cladus: Opisthokonta
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Cladus: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Superclassis: Tetrapoda
Classis: Aves
Subclassis: Carinatae
Infraclassis: Neornithes
Parvclassis: Neognathae
Ordo: Sphenisciformes
Familia: Spheniscidae
Genus: Pygoscelis
Species: Pygoscelis adeliae

Pygoscelis adeliae, Photo: Michael Lahanas

Name

Pygoscelis adeliae Hombron & Jacquinot, 1841

Reference

Annales Des Sciences Naturelles (2) 16 p.320

Vernacular names
Internationalization
Česky: Tučňák kroužkový
Dansk: Adeliepingvin
Deutsch: Adeliepinguin
English: Adelie Penguin
Esperanto: Adeliopingveno
Español: Pygoscelis adeliae
Français: Manchot Adélie
Magyar: Adélie-pingvin
Italiano: Pinguino di Adelia
日本語: アデリーペンギン
Lëtzebuergesch: Adeliepinguin
Lietuvių: Adelės pingvinas
Nederlands: Adéliepinguïn
‪Norsk (bokmål)‬: Adeliepingvin
Polski: Pingwin Adeli
Português: Pinguim de Adélia
Русский: Пингвин Адели
Slovenščina: Adelijski pingvin
Suomi: Jääpingviini
Svenska: Adeliepingvin
Türkçe: Adelie pengueni

The Adélie Penguin, Pygoscelis adeliae, is a species of penguin common along the entire Antarctic coast. They are among the most southerly distributed of all seabirds, along with the Emperor Penguin, South Polar Skua, Wilson's Storm Petrel, Snow Petrel, and Antarctic Petrel. In 1840, French explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville named them for his wife, Adélie.

Taxonomy

The Adélie Penguin is one of three species in the genus Pygoscelis. Mitochondrial and nuclear DNA evidence suggests the genus split from other penguins around 38 million years ago, about 2 million years after the ancestors of the genus Aptenodytes. In turn, the Adélie penguins split off from the other members of the genus around 19 million years ago.[2]

Distribution and habitat

There are 38 colonies of Adélie penguins, and there are over 5 million Adélies in the Ross Sea region. Ross Island supports a colony of approximately half a million Adélies. The Adélie penguins breed from October to February on shores around the Antarctic continent. Adelies build rough nests of stones. Two eggs are laid, these are incubated for 32 to 34 days by the parents taking turns (shifts typically last for 12 days). The chicks remain in the nest for 22 days before joining creches. The chicks moult into their juvenile plumage and go out to sea after 50 to 60 days.

Description

These penguins are mid-sized, being 46 to 75 cm (18 to 30 in) in length and 3.9 to 5.8 kg (8.6 to 12.8 lbs) in weight. Distinctive marks are the white ring surrounding the eye and the feathers at the base of the bill. These long feathers hide most of the red bill. The tail is a little longer than other penguins' tails. They are smaller than other penguin species.

Adelie penguins can swim up to 45 miles per hour.

Adelie penguins are preyed on by skua.

Behavior

Like all penguins, the Adélie is highly social, foraging and nesting in groups. They are also very aggressive to other penguins that steal stones from their nest.

Specifics of their behaviour were documented extensively by Apsley Cherry Garrard (a survivor of Robert Falcon Scott’s fateful final journey to the South Pole) in his book The Worst Journey in the World. Cherry-Garrard noted; “They are extraordinarily like children, these little people of the Antarctic world, either like children or like old men, full of their own importance."[3] Certain displays of their selfishness were commented upon by Levick during his surveying of penguins in the Antarctic, "At the place where they most often went in [the water], a long terrace of ice about six feet in height ran for some hundreds of yards along the egde of the water, and here, just as on the sea-ice, crowds would stand near the brink. When they had succeeded in pushing one of their number over, all would crane their necks over the edge, and when they saw the pioneer safe in the water, the rest followed.”[4]

It was observed how the penguin's intrigue could also put them in harms way, which Scott found a particular nuisance, “The great trouble with [the dog teams] has been due to the fatuous conduct of the penguins. Groups of these have been constantly leaping on to our [ice] floe. From the moment of landing on their feet their whole attitude expressed devouring curiosity and a pig-headed disgregard for their own safety. They waddle forward, poking their heads to and fro in their usually absurd way, in spite of a string of howling dogs straining to get at them. “Hulloa!” they seem to say, “here’s a game – what do all you ridiculous things want?” And they come a few steps nearer. The dogs make a rush as far as their harness or leashes allow. The penguins are not daunted in the least, but their ruffs go up and they squawk with semblance of anger.”[5] Regularly this attitude lead to the demise of an Adélie penguin, "Then the final fatal steps forward are taken and they come within reach. There is a spring, a squawk, a horrid red patch on the snow, and the incident is closed.”[5] Others on the mission to the South Pole were more receptive of this element of the Adélie's intrigue. Cherry-Garrard; “Meares and Dimitri exercised the dog-teams out upon the larger floes when we were held up for any length of time. One day a team was tethered by the side of the ship, and a penguin sighted them and hurried from afar off. The dogs became frantic with excitement as he neared them: he supposed it was a greeting, and the louder they barked and the more they strained at their ropes, the faster he bustled to meet them. He was extremely angry with a man who went and saved him from a very sudden end, clinging to his trousers with his beak, and furiously beating his shins with his flippers.”[6] This was an occurrence of some regularity, “It was not an uncommon sight to see a little Adélie penguin standing within a few inches of the nose of a dog which was almost frantic with desire and passion.” [6]

Due to their obstinate personality traits Cherry-Garrard held the birds in great regard, “Whatever [an Adélie] penguin does has individuality, and he lays bare his whole life for all to see. He cannot fly away. And because he is quaint in all that he does, but still more because he is fighting against bigger odds than any other bird, and fighting always with the most gallant pluck.”[7]

Diet

The Adélie penguin is known to feed mainly on Antarctic krill, ice krill, Antarctic silverfish, and Glacial Squid (diet varies depending on geographic location) during the chick-rearing season. The stable isotope record of fossil eggshell accumulated in colonies over the last 38,000 years reveals a sudden change from a fish-based diet to krill that started two hundred years ago. This is most likely due to the decline of the Antarctic Fur Seal since the late 18th century and Baleen whales in the 20th century. The reduction of competition from these predators has resulted in a surplus of krill, which the penguins now exploit as an easier source of food.[8]

Reproduction

Adélie penguins arrive at their breeding grounds in October or November, at the end of winter and the start of spring. Their nests consist of stones piled together. In December, the warmest month in Antarctica (about -2°C), the parents take turns incubating the egg; one goes to feed and the other stays to warm the egg. The parent who is incubating does not eat. In March, the adults and their young return to the sea. The Adélie penguin lives on sea ice but needs the ice-free land to breed. With a reduction in sea ice and a scarcity of food, populations of the Adélie penguin have dropped by 65% over the past 25 years.[9]

Migration

Adélie penguins living in the Ross Sea region migrate an average of about 13,000 kilometers during the year as they follow the sun from their breeding colonies to winter foraging grounds and back again. The longest treks have been recorded at 17,600 kilometers.[10]

In popular culture

* Early footage of the penguins was captured on the Terra Nova Expedition to the South Pole by cameraman Herbert Ponting. They featured prominently in his 1933 documentary, Ninety Degrees South, because at the time nobody had managed to bring one back to Europe alive.
* The 1938 children's book Mr. Popper's Penguins revolves around the story of twelve Adélie penguins.
* The 1971 film Mr. Forbush and The Penguins[11] follows John Hurt's character as he spends 6 months observing (and becoming attached to) a colony of Adélie penguins.
* The 1988 children's film The Adventures of Scamper the Penguin featured Adélie Penguins.
* The 1995 film The Pebble and the Penguin was based on Adélie courtship behavior where the birds build nests of pebbles to attract mates.
* Mumble, the main character in the 2006 film Happy Feet, befriends a group of Mexican-accented Adélie penguins.
* In the webcomic Wally and Osborne, Osborne is an Adélie penguin.
* The Daily Telegraph, a major United Kingdom newspaper, ran an April Fool's Day 2008 joke promoting a BBC special showing flying Adélie penguins.[12]
* The CBBC children's show Pingu revolves around a family of penguins who are presumed to be adelie penguins.

References

1. ^ BirdLife International 2009. Pygoscelis adeliae. In: IUCN 2010. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2010.4. www.iucnredlist.org Downloaded on 31 Dec. 2010.
2. ^ Baker AJ, Pereira SL, Haddrath OP, Edge KA (2006). "Multiple gene evidence for expansion of extant penguins out of Antarctica due to global cooling". Proc Biol Sci. 273 (1582): 11–17. doi:10.1098/rspb.2005.3260. PMC 1560011. PMID 16519228. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1560011. Retrieved 2008-03-21.
3. ^ Cherry-Garrard, Apsley - The Worst Journey in the World - Picador - P. 64
4. ^ Levick, Antarctic Penguins, P. 83
5. ^ a b Scott’s Last Expidition vol. I pp 92-3
6. ^ a b Cherry-Garrard, Apsley - The Worst Journey in the World - Picador - P. 65
7. ^ Cherry-Garrard, Apsley - The Worst Journey in the World - Picador - P. 85
8. ^ S.D. Emslie & W.P. Patterson (July 2007). "Abrupt recent shift in δ13C and δ15N values in Adélie penguin eggshell in Antarctica". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104 (28): 11666–11669. doi:10.1073/pnas.0608477104. PMC 1913849. PMID 17620620. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1913849.
9. ^ Eccleston, Paul (11 December 2007). "Penguins now threatened by global warming". The Daily Telegraph (London). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/12/11/eapeng111.xml. Retrieved 23 April 2010.
10. ^ "Researchers follow Adélie penguin winter migration for the first time". The Antarctic Sun. http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2230.
11. ^ Mr. Forbush and The Penguins at the Internet Movie Database
12. ^ Midgley, Neil. "Flying penguins found by BBC programme." The Telegraph. 1 April 2008.