Have you ever seen a blue penguin? If you have, you may have seen a blue penguin called the little penguin, because of its size. It is about 16 inches tall. That is about three feet smaller than the Emperor Penguin witch is 4 feet tall. It is blue with a white under belly. The coloration hides the penguin very well in the water. Like all penguins, it is flightless and its wings have adapted into flippers.

 

Little penguins live along the southern coast of Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand and the Chatham Islands. They live well in their environment because it offers a good diet, although they are threatened by human related activities. They live in large colonies and only a few go solo. The Australian population has less than 1,000,000 birds. Although this may seem like many birds this is actually a very small amount. They are shrinking at a slow pace due to oil pollution, fire and discarded plastic products, dogs and fishermen who use them as bait. New Zealand has not taken a population count.

 

A little penguin will eat small fish. They are at the middle of the food chain. They can compete for food with other fish. They are able to get bread on the table by swimming faster than the competition. Little penguins will also share food with their children. The little penguin has many predators including dogs, cats and fox’s. These predators will normally eat the sick, wounded and young. Humans are also predators to the penguin. The only way the blue penguin can get away is by swimming due to its clumsiness on land.

 

Well as I researched my animal, I discovered it had many names. Some of these names include little penguin, Blue penguin, Fairy penguins and Little Blue penguins. They lay 2 eggs and the parents have incubation shifts. They will switch every 2 days. One parent is in charge of sitting and the other gathering food. I learned a lot about the blue penguin. It is part of a genus that only contains 2 species. I also learned that people could only view the penguins, no pictures allowed. So if you ever go to Sea World or Australia one day, do not say “Oh, just another penguin”, and walk away. Think about the blue little critters!

 

Author: Deidrick A

Published: 02/2007

 

Photo Credit: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Fairy_penguin.jpg Bibliography Internet sources: Wikipedia 2-1-07 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Penguin Encyclopedia sources: “Penguins” Britanica 2004