Photo used with permission by Kieran Davies
Little Blue Penguins
Scientific name: Eudyptula minor
Total length: 16 inches
Weight: 2.4 pounds
Markings: dorsal fins are bluish-gray and
the their bellies are white.
There is four subspecies of the blue penguins. The
Northern blue penguin which lives on the southern and
southwestern coasts of Australia as well as the coast of New
Zealand. The Southern blue penguins live around the South Island
of New Zealand and on several other small islands. The Chatham
blue penguins are found on the Chatham Islands. The
White-flippered blue penguins lives on the Banks Peninsula on the
eastern coast of South island in New Zealand.
Little Blue penguins around new Zealand begin their mating
season around April or May. Their nest will be self-dug sand
burrow or the nest will under thick plant growth. Sometimes they
can also be found in groups in natural hollows in the cliffs.
They will have this nest all year around. Little Blue penguins
are not travelers. During the day, they search for food in the
sea then return to their brooding hollows at night and travel
again to the sea at sunrise.
A single male will attract a female with an endearing
mating call. These birds rarely fight with their neighbors but
males living in a group perform a group mating call to attract
the attention of single females. This leads to disagreements,
sometimes.
Female little blue penguins lays two eggs in September or
October. One parent remains on land to warm the egg. After about
five weeks the little blue-gray chick is born. The next two or
three weeks the parent have to keep the chick warm in tell the
chick can maintain their own body heat.
Little blue penguins can live to be quite old. Once a bird
has survived the first five years, it can live to be as much as
fifteen to twenty years old. But only a one-third of the birds
survive their first year. The dangers that the new inexperienced
penguins on land risk: being attacked by dogs, cats, weasels,
polecats, hit by trucks and automobiles. If that is not enough in
the sea they have to worry about sea lions.
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