Adélie Penguin
or Black-throated Penguin
Scientific Name: Pygoscelis adeliae
Size
Adélie penguins are about 30 inches (75cm) tall. They weigh about 9 to 14
pounds (4 to 6kg) dropping to about 6 to 10 pounds (3 to 5kg) after the
breeding season.
Where are they found?
The Adélie penguin is the most abundant and widely distributed of all
Antarctic penguins. Vagrant to South Georgia, Heard and Macquarie Islands.
Does not breed north of the South Sandwich and Bouvet Islands.
What do they eat?
Adélie penguins mainly feed on shrimps.
Main Predators
The Adélie's predators at the rookery are Sheathbills and Antarctic Skuas,
but the weather is a more inportant enemy, many birds being buried at their
nests by snow blizzards. At sea the main predator is the Leopard Seal.
Highlights
Adélies return to the rookery during October, when the sea is still frozen
and they may have to cross as much as 60 miles (100km) of ice. They nest at
the foot of gentle ice-cliff slopes. Experienced breeders return to the same
nest site and construct a nest-pile of small stones (no other material is
available) on open ground.
Two eggs (sometimes only one but never three), incubated at first by the male
while the female goes off to feed at sea, returning to relieve her mate two
weeks later.
Subsequently they take turns in departing in feeding expeditions. The
incubation period is about 36 days. Both parents feed the young, which after
four weeks congregate in crèches of as many as a hundred or more chicks.
Returning parents recognize and feed their own chick in the group. Juveniles
moult, then go to sea in February. Walking speed is about 3 mph (5 kph), but
Adélies can run or "toboggan" much faster, outdistancing a sprinting man.
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