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NATURAL HISTORY AND CONSERVATION . Penguins UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON PRESS

Penguins Natural History and Conservation

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Edited by Pablo Garcia Borboroglu and P. Dee BoersmaPenguins, among the most delightful creatures in the world, are also among the most vulnerable. The fragile status of most penguin populations today mirrors the troubled condition of the southern oceans, as well as larger marine conservation problems: climate change, pollution, and fisheries mismanagement. This timely book presents the most current knowledge on each of the eighteen penguin species-from the majestic emperor penguins of the Antarctic to the tiny blue penguins of New Zealand and Australia, from the northern rockhopper penguins of the South Atlantic and Indian oceans to the Galapagos penguins of the equator - written by the leading experts in the field.

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Page 1: Penguins Natural History and Conservation

NATURAL HISTORY AND CONSERVATION .

Penguins

UNIVERSITY O

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Penguins

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PenguinsNATURAL HISTORY AND CONSERVATION

Edited byPablo Garcia borboroGlu

andP. Dee boersma

A SAMUEL AND ALTHEA STROUM BOOK

university of WashinGton PressSeattle & London

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© 2013 by the University of Washington PressPrinted and bound in KoreaDesign by Thomas EykemansComposed in Warnock, typeface designed by Robert SlimbachDisplay type set in Bodoni, designed by Morris Fuller BentonHeadings set in Trade Gothic, designed by Jackson Burke16 15 14 13 5 4 3 2 1

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

University of Washington PressPo Box 50096, Seattle, Wa 98145, Usa www.washington.edu/uwpress

The paper used in this publication is acid-free and meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi Z39.48–1984.∞

Complete cataloging information for this title is available from the Library of Congress. isBn 978-0-295-99284-6

Penguins is published with the assistance of a grant from the Samuel and Althea Stroum Endowed Book Fund, and supports the work of the Global Penguin Society, www.globalpenguinsociety.org.

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Many years of work, effort,

and persistence reside in this book,

which we hope will improve the world

for penguins and for people.

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I. LARGE PENGUINS GENUS APTENODYTES

1. King Penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus) 7

2. Emperor Penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) 23

II. BRUSH-TAILED PENGUINS GENUS PYGOSCELIS

3. Adélie Penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) 37

4. Chinstrap Penguin (Pygoscelis antarctica) 59

5. Gentoo Penguin (Pygoscelis papua) 73

III. YELLOW-EYED PENGUIN GENUS MEGADYPTES

6. Yellow-Eyed Penguin (Megadyptes antipodes) 91

Contents

Global Penguin Society viiiIntroduction 3

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IV. CRESTED PENGUINS GENUS EUDYPTES

7. Southern Rockhopper Penguin (Eudyptes chrysocome) 113

8. Northern Rockhopper Penguin (Eudyptes moseleyi) 131

9. Erect-Crested Penguin (Eudyptes sclateri) 145

10. Fiordland Penguin (Eudyptes pachyrhynchus) 153

11. Snares Penguin (Eudyptes robustus) 169

12. Macaroni Penguin (Eudyptes chrysolophus) and Royal Penguin (Eudyptes schlegeli) 185

V. BANDED PENGUINS GENUS SPHENISCUS

13. African Penguin (Spheniscus demersus) 211

14. Magellanic Penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus) 233

15. Humboldt Penguin (Spheniscus humboldti) 265

16. Galápagos Penguin (Spheniscus mendiculus) 285

VI. LITTLE (OR BLUE) PENGUIN GENUS EUDYPTULA

17. Little Penguin (Eudyptula minor) 305

Conclusion 321Acknowledgments 325Contributors 327

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The Global Penguin Society (GPS) is an international alliance-building organization that promotes the pro-tection of the world’s penguin species through sci-ence, management, and education. As an international forum for conservation, GPS helps NGOs, academic and research institutions, individual projects, local communities, and other partners work together for the conservation of penguins and oceans. Working syner-gistically, GPS accelerates and enhances penguin and ocean conservation efforts.

Penguins are conservation subjects as well as tools for ocean conservation. The Society fosters the science needed for conservation and adequate management of penguins and marine environments at local, regional, and global scales. GPS uses science to help decision

makers improve management and educate local com-munities about the value of penguins.

The Global Penguin Society links local stakeholders to policy change using penguins. It provides opportuni-ties for the public, scientists, and managers to develop and advocate solutions for sustainable activities and management for marine and coastal environments. When appropriate, GPS campaigns to educate people about how to improve the quality of life for both pen-guins and people. In brief, the Global Penguin Society encourages synergy, strategy, and integration and pro-vides a unified vision to enhance the scope of penguin conservation achievements.

www.globalpenguinsociety.org

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Penguins

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3

Introduction

Penguins are Southern Hemisphere seabirds. They are athletic, interesting, and ancient. Some Magellanic pen-guins migrate more than 2,400 miles from the Strait of Magellan in Argentina to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Magel-lanic penguins can travel more than 170 kilometers in a day, and do so under their own power—no fossil fuel use for them. A breeding Magellanic likely covers 16,000 kilometers a year, the average distance a car is driven in the United States. Emperor penguins breed in Antarc-tica, where they keep their eggs warm by holding them on their feet while enduring temperatures as cold as −30 to −40oC with the wind blowing 40 meters per second. Humans couldn’t survive for long in those conditions. If that doesn’t take your breath away, imagine fasting in these conditions as a male emperor does for up to four months, without a bite to eat except snow and ice.

Penguins are remarkable creatures. They vary in size from the little penguin, which weighs just about 1 kilogram and is a shallow diver, to the emperor pen-guin, which weighs up to 40 kilograms and can dive 500 meters and hold its breath for 23 minutes. In compari-son, the record dive for a human is 101 meters in 4.13 minutes. Penguin species live in environments ranging from the tropics of the Galápagos Islands to frozen Ant-arctica and across islands and continents in the Southern Hemisphere. They all are black and white, and some have yellow and orange crests or a bluish coloration. Some individuals in the wild live more than 30 years. They nest in deserts, in forests, on bare rock, in burrows, under bushes, under trees, and in the open.

Fossils suggest that penguins flourished between 10 and 40 million years ago, and the oldest fossil is about 55

million years old. Their origins, however, may be rooted in the Cretaceous period, 140 to 65 million years ago, when their ancestor was a flying seabird. Whether that ancestral form was a loon, an albatross, or a frigate bird is unclear. In this book, we organized the chapters by the relationships among penguins based on current mor-phological and molecular knowledge. The six genera of living penguins (Aptenodytes, Eudyptes, Eudyptula, Megadyptes, Pygoscelis, and Spheniscus) are clearly defined, and their classification has stood the test of time. The relationship between species within and out-side their genera is not so fixed.

We start the book with the largest penguins, the king and emperor (Aptenodytes), and end with the smallest, the little (Eudyptula). Each species account provides the com-mon and scientific names, description, taxonomic status, range and distribution, summary of population trends, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) status, natural history, population sizes and trends, map and size of colonies, general annual cycle, main threats, recommended research and conservation actions, and current conservation efforts for the species. We use the same order in each chapter. The material presented should inform human action, whether it is research, policy, or on-the-ground conservation. The editors hope this book will do more than inform you about penguins. First we must know, then understand, and, finally, we can act. We hope you will be moved to help penguins.

Even though penguins live in remote areas of the world, humans have a big impact on them. Early Antarc-tic explorers depended on them for food, businessmen harvested tens of thousands of them for their oil, and

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earlier settlers on islands ate them and collected their eggs. Now penguins are among the most endangered seabirds. About two-thirds of penguin species are on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The threat of human harvest has decreased, but climate variation, fishing, habitat modification, disease, and even tourism loom as threats. Human impacts will likely continue to be largely negative on seabirds as human numbers grow beyond 7 billion and consumption increases. The fate of seabirds, from albatrosses to penguins, is linked with our own.

Penguins are among the most popular and best-loved birds. March of the Penguins, the highest-grossing docu-mentary of all time, features emperor penguins. Whether a person turns to the movies or children’s books, pen-guins figure significantly in human culture. This book

details the lives of the world’s penguins. A total of 49 researchers from 12 countries on 5 continents partici-pated in this effort. This is the first book to bring the world’s experts together to share what they know about each species.

The book is a milestone for the Global Penguin Soci-ety (GPS), a group dedicated to the well-being of pen-guins. Mitigating and managing the threats to penguins on local, regional, and global scales require funding and social networking. The Global Penguin Society helps researchers, landowners, politicians, and governments give penguins a voice.

Penguins are environmental sentinels. People love penguins but are unaware of their decline. Their natural charisma makes them the perfect ambassadors to advo-cate for the health of our oceans and coasts.

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