Phil Bendle Collection:Penguin (Gentoo) Pygoscelis papua: Difference between revisions

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Revision as of 14:35, 31 July 2019

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Sphenisciformes
Family: Spheniscidae
Genus: Pygoscelis
Species: P. papua
Binomial name: Pygoscelis papua
Common names: Gentoo penguin, Long-tailed gentoo penguin

Pygoscelis papua is a species of penguin with a circumpolar distribution, breeding on sub-Antarctic Islands and the Antarctic peninsula. Its non-breeding range is not fully known, but they have been found as far north as New Zealand, Australia and Argentina.
Pygoscelis papua is the third largest penguin (>90 cm high and >8.5 kg in weight). Body size is highly variable across its range. Males are typically larger than females. It has a conspicuous, wide, white stripe extending across the top of its head. Its bill is a bright orange-red and with black along the upper mandible and at the tip. It has pale whitish-pink webbed feet. Pygoscelis papua has the most prominent tail of all penguins and when walking it sticks out behind sweeping from side to side, hence the scientific name Pygoscelis, which means "rump-tailed"
They are the fastest underwater swimming penguins, reaching speeds of 36 km/h. They feed mainly on crustaceans, such as krill, with fish making up only about 15% of the diet.
They call in a variety of ways, but the most frequently heard is a loud trumpeting which is emitted with its head thrown back.

Pygoscelis papua on Macquarie Island, Subantarctic
Photos below courtesy of Tamzin Henderson@ https://www.tamzinnz.com/ [1]

A young penguin.
[2]

The red shading shows the distribution of the gentoo penguin
[3] 

Thanks to Wikipedia for text and information http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/