Eudyptula minor

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Taxonomy [top]

Kingdom	Phylum	Class	Order	Family
ANIMALIA	CHORDATA	AVES	SPHENISCIFORMES	SPHENISCIDAE

Scientific Name:	Eudyptula minor
Species Authority:	(Forster, 1781)
Common Name/s: English – Blue Penguin, Fairy Penguin, Little Penguin

Assessment Information [top]

Red List Category & Criteria:	Least Concern     ver 3.1
Year Published:	2009
Assessor/s:	BirdLife International
Reviewer/s:	Bird, J., Butchart, S.
Justification: This species has a very large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence <20,000 km2 combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). Despite the fact that the population trend appears to be decreasing, the decline is not believed to be sufficiently rapid to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations). The population size has not been quantified, but it is not believed to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (<10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be >10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure). For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern.
History:	2008 – Least Concern 2004 – Least Concern

Geographic Range [top]

Range Description:	The Little Penguin has a narrow distribution from the Chatham Islands (New Zealand) in the east to the south-western tip of Australia1.
Countries:	Native: Australia; New Zealand Vagrant: Chile
Range Map:	Click here to open the map viewer and explore range.

Population [top]

Population:

The global population size has not been quantified, but the population in Australia is estimated as under 1,000,000 individuals (del Hoyo et al. 1992).

Habitat and Ecology [top]

Habitat and Ecology:

This species occurs in temperate marine waters, mainly feeding on pelagic shoaling fish, cephalopods and occasionally crustaceans. It captures prey by pursuit diving, frequently swimming round a shoal of fishg in concentric circles before plunging into its midst. It is known to dive up to 69 m and usually feeds along. Breeding has been recorded in all month with the exact timing depending on locality and year. It forms colonies, nesting in burrows on sandy or rocky islands, often at the base of cliffs or in sand dunes1

Systems:

Terrestrial; Marine

Bibliography [top]

del Hoyo, J.; Elliot, A.; Sargatal, J. 1992. Handbook of the Birds of the World, vol. 1: Ostrich to Ducks. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, Spain.