Adelia Penguins: Habitad, Curiosities, Eating Habits

Adelia Penguins: Habitad, curiosities, eating habits

The Adelia penguin is a Antarctic penguin, closely related to Gentoo and Barbijo penguins. Together, these three species are known as brush tail pending. The Adelia penguin is a relatively small species with the black back and head, the white front and a characteristic white ring around the eyes.

Habitat and eating habits

Although Adelia penguins live mainly in the Antarctica contine. Both parents turn to take care of two eggs that are put in a stone nest. While one of the parents incubates the eggs, the other feeds them. Adelia penguins are predators who feed on many different prey, but their preferred food source is Krill. However, its dependence on this particular dam source is a relatively recent phenomenon that seems to align with the decrease in other Kril predators (for example, fine wolves and bearded whales) as a result of excessive hunting. Regardless, the current Pingüino Adelia diet consistently includes several Krill species. When individuals do not nest, it is known to go through long winter migrations in search of food,

Curiosities

An interesting behavior of the Pingüino Adelia is his reluctant to be the first individual to enter the water. It is known that this species forms dense groups on the shore of the water waiting for an individual to fall or pushed into the water. Only after that first individual is seen swimming without danger to feed, the others in the group follow him.

It is believed that this behavior is used to avoid the predation of leopard seals, orcas and other large animals. Adelia penguins do not have natural land predators and feel great curiosity about people. They often approach researchers as if they were conducting their own studies.

Protection

The Adelia penguin is the subject of numerous scientific studies and is generally considered one of the best studied penguins. Researchers have been studying the behavior of Adelia penguins for many decades. Unfortunately, the continuous expansion of research facilities reduces the nesting area, which could contribute to the state of this species as almost threatened with extinction. Although population tendencies are currently positive, scientists are concerned that Krill’s overfish from the southern ocean and other species of dam can threaten Adelaida’s penguin ability to maintain stable populations. 

In addition, although this species does not reproduce on the ice surface, researchers predict that climate change will negatively affect the trophic network of the southern oceanof ice.