Someone Say Penguin?

This website provides information about the little blue penguin (Eudyptula minor). My partner and I chose certain topics that we felt were important about our organism and its everyday life. Some of the topics that we wrote about are Reproduction, Nutrition, Interactions, and Habitat. You will find more information on these topics from the links on the side of the page.  This website was a project for our Organismal Biology class at University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. Our goal was to make the website look professional by gathering information from primary research articles and credible websites. We brought this information together to provide an educational site about the little blue penguin. The reason we chose the little blue penguin was due to our passion for penguins. We wanted to gather information about a penguin that is not as popular amongst the penguin species. The little blue penguin met that criteria and touched our hearts due to it being the smallest penguin in the family Spheniscidae.  

Map of the area where the Spheniscidae family can be found. Photo was taken off Wikipedia. Map was created based off information from "The Encyclopedia of Animals: a complete visual guide" by Fred Cooke and Jenni Bruce, page 260.

The Little Blue Penguin  (Eudyptula minor)

The penguin family is composed of a group of flightless aquatic birds that live in the southern hemisphere of the world. The little blue penguin is placed in this group because of its flightless nature and its ability to forage food from the sea (see Nutrition page for more information on foraging). The little blue penguin is the smallest bird in the penguin species. An adult blue penguin’s average height is around 12 inches and can weigh around 2 to 3 pounds (New England Aquarium, 2013). The name of the bird is a good clue to its color. The feathers on the dorsal region of the bird are dark blue in color and the feathers on its ventral region are white in color. The average lifespan for a penguin in the wild is 6 to 7 years (New England Aquarium, 2013). Some penguins in captivity have lived up to 20 years (New England Aquarium, 2013). The little blue penguins are found around Australia, New Zealand, and surrounding islands. They hunt on the coastlines in the shallow Pacific and Indian Ocean. Due to their small size, the little penguins have to deal with predators on a day to day basis. Some of these predators are natural and others were introduced into their habitat (see Interactions for more details). Despite being so small, the penguins rely on numbers and their intricate burrows for safety (see Habitat page for more information on burrows).

Banded little blue penguin adult. Photo was taken by Nicola Barnard.

Special Thanks:
Nicola Barnard
Dr. Richard Roscoe
Steve Attwood
Owen Spargo
For allowing us to use their pictures for this website in order to make this information more presentable.

Please check out other fellow classmates websites on Multiple Organisms.
This project has been going on for years, and our goal is to provide educational websites for not only our organism but many others too.
None of the information on this site is credited to us the authors, but refer to the Reference page for more background information.

Here is a link to the the University of Wisconsin La Crosse's home page (UW-L New Window)

Read on to see how the little blue penguin fits in the tree of life!

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