Chinstrap penguin
| Chinstrap penguin | ||||||||||
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Chinstrap penguin ( Pygoscelis antarctica ) |
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| Pygoscelis antarctica | ||||||||||
| ( Forster , 1781) |
The Chinstrap Penguin ( Pygoscelis antarctica ), also known as the throat stripe penguin , is a species of the long-tailed penguin species . It is closely related to the Adelie Penguin ( P. adeliae ) and the Gentoo Penguin ( P. papua ).
The Chinstrap Penguin lives mainly in the west and north of the Antarctic Peninsula, also on the Antarctic coast and on a few islands in the South Atlantic , the sub-Antarctic islands. Its characteristic feature is a black, narrow stripe that runs from the back of the head over the throat. The population is estimated at 7,500,000 breeding pairs, of which 5,000,000 live on the South Sandwich Islands alone . They are considered to be the most contentious of the penguins and do not shy away from attacking much larger animals.
No subspecies are distinguished for the chinstrap penguin. The IUCN currently rates the species as harmless ( least concern ).
Appearance
The chinstrap penguin reaches a body length of 71 to 76 centimeters. Weight varies widely over the course of the year and is usually highest just before moult. It ranges between 3,430 grams in females shortly after oviposition and just under 5 kilograms in males who return to the breeding colonies in spring. Sex dimorphism is not very pronounced. Males are only slightly larger than the females and have a slightly larger beak. The plumage shows no seasonal changes.
The forehead, crown, neck and upper body are blue-black, only shortly before the moult, when the plumage is very worn, it appears brownish. The cheeks, chin and throat are white. A thin black line runs from the back of the head, over the ears, below the eyes. To humans, this facial drawing looks as if the penguin was wearing a helmet fastened with a strap under the chin. In English the chinstrap penguin is therefore called "Chinstrap Penguin" and in Russian also "policeman".
The underside of the body is white. The wings, which are transformed into fins, are black on the upper side and whitish on the underside with a small black end spot. The feet and legs are pink with black soles, the iris is reddish brown, and the beak is black.
Fledglings are smaller and slimmer than adult chinstrap penguins and have a smaller beak. Until they fully moult at fourteen months of age, they have black spots on their faces, particularly noticeable around the eyes.
Due to the white face that extends over the eyes, and the lack of any feather bonnet or extended head feathers, the chinstrap penguin should not be confused with any other penguin species.
voice
So far, no detailed studies have been carried out on the reputation repertoire of the chinstrap penguins. One of the vocalizations consists of a series of loud, high-pitched and checked syllables that play a role in courtship and also encourage neighboring birds to call. A low, almost humming sound with the beak closed can be heard from pairs or individual parent birds that are currently feeding a young. A hissing sound can be heard during aggressive arguments with conspecifics. So far there is no knowledge about the sound repertoire of the chicks.
distribution
The chinstrap penguin is circumpolarly represented in the Antarctic . It breeds mainly on the Antarctic Peninsula and on sub-Antarctic islands in the South Atlantic. Breeding colonies are located on the South Shetland Islands and the South Orkney Islands , among others . Chinstrap penguins occasionally breed on Heard Island . There are only few breeding records for the south of the Indian Ocean and the Pacific . However, non-breeding birds are occasionally observed on Adélieland , suggesting long migrations after the breeding season. Odd guests have also been observed on the Australian coast. The chinstrap penguin is a pelagic species. In the Wedell Sea, it prefers pack ice zones that cover 10 to 30 percent of the water.
The main breeding colonies are found on the South Sandwich Islands , the South Shetland Islands and the South Orkney Islands . The IUCN estimates the population to be at least 8 million breeding birds.
food
The main food of the chinstrap penguins is krill and some smaller fish species. Chinstrap penguins have been shown to dive up to 100 meters. However, they usually catch their food at diving depths between ten and forty meters. During the breeding season they look for their food near the breeding colonies. They are then usually only three hours away from the breeding colony. But there are also breeding colonies where breeding birds are absent for up to 48 hours. Between 6.6 and 14.3 dives were counted per hour. The individual dive often lasts no longer than 18 to 19 seconds, but chinstrap penguins occasionally stay under water for up to 85 seconds.
Reproduction
Like all penguins, the chinstrap penguin is a colony breeder. As a colony site, it uses ice-free zones on the coasts and prefers somewhat steeper and more rocky coastlines than other penguin species. It often nests with the gentoo penguin and the Adelie penguin in a breeding colony, but tends to prefer steeper coastal sections than these. The nest spacing varies. On the South Shetland Islands it is between 80 and 90 centimeters. On King George Island, the nests are closer together and the distance averages just under 60 centimeters. Compared to other penguin species, such as the Adélie penguin nesting in the same breeding area, chinstrap penguins return to their breeding colonies relatively late. Wherever they are associated with Adelie penguins, they usually start their breeding business three to four weeks earlier.
During the breeding season itself, which begins around November, very large colonies of several thousand individuals occasionally form. Other colonies such as King George Island are much smaller and often do not contain more than a hundred breeding pairs. The nest is a circular platform made of small stones, thirty to fifty centimeters in diameter and five to ten centimeters high. The clutch generally comprises two eggs. First, the male breeds while the female goes to sea to forage. The partners then alternate brooding over periods of five to ten days. The incubation period averages 36.3 days for the first egg and 33.9 days for the second egg. As soon as the young bird has hatched, the parent birds separate at shorter intervals, which are usually twelve to twenty-four hours. Newborn pups have gray, plush feathers. The young stay in the nest for the first 20 to 30 days, then they move to a kind of manger , that is, a collection of penguin chicks under the supervision of one or two adults. These don't necessarily have to be your own parents. Around the age of two months molting the juveniles and acquire their adult feathers. Then they also start swimming and have to feed themselves. The breeding success is very variable and influenced, among other things, by the ice conditions. Years in which dense sea ice prevails close to the breeding colonies restricts the foraging area to such an extent that this has a negative effect on breeding success. The colony size and the individual nesting location, on the other hand, have no influence on the breeding success. The predators of young birds and eggs include the skuas and the white-faced sheathbill ( Chionis alba ). The leopard seal is the main predator of adult chinstrap penguins. On the basis of a 24-hour observation of breeding colonies on Elephant Island , it has been extrapolated that around 10 percent of the breeding birds there fall victim to this dog seal during a breeding period .
There is often competition for the sparse breeding grounds, especially with the Adélie penguins, as these also breed in the range of the Chinstrap Penguins. A popular object of contention are the small stones for building nests.
literature
- Klemens Pütz , Christine Reinke-Kunze: Wildlife of the Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic. Antarctic Research Trust, Forch 2009, ISBN 978-3-033-01791-7 .
- Hadoram Shirihai: A Complete Guide to Antarctic Wildlife - The Birds and Marine Mammals of the Antarctic Continent and Southern Ocean. Alula Press, Degerby 2002, ISBN 951-98947-0-5 .
- Tony D. Williams: The penguins. Spheniscidae. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1995, ISBN 0-19-854667-X .
Web links
- Videos, photos and sound recordings of Pygoscelis antarctica in the Internet Bird Collection
- Pygoscelis antarcticus inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Listed by: BirdLife International, 2012. Retrieved November 23, 2013.
Single receipts
- ↑ Pütz, Reinke-Kunze: Animal world of the Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic. P. 24.
- ↑ a b BirdLife International: Species Factsheet - Pygoscelis antarcticus , accessed November 7, 2010.
- ↑ Tony D. Williams: The penguins. Spheniscidae (= Bird families of the World . Volume 2 ). Oxford University Press, Oxford 1995, ISBN 0-19-854667-X .
- ↑ a b c Tony D. Williams: The penguins. Spheniscidae. P. 179.
- ↑ a b c Tony D. Williams: The penguins. Spheniscidae. P. 181.
- ^ A b Tony D. Williams: The penguins. Spheniscidae. P. 183.
- ↑ Hadoram Shirihai: A Complete Guide to Antarctic Wildlife ... p. 68.
- ↑ Tony D. Williams: The penguins. Spheniscidae. P. 184.
- ^ A b Tony D. Williams: The penguins. Spheniscidae. P. 185.