Little penguin

"Kororā" redirects here. For the extinct penguin genus, see Korora.
This article is about the species endemic to New Zealand. For the species found in Australia and Otago, New Zealand, see Eudyptula novaehollandiae.

Little penguin
Little penguin (Eudyptula minor), moving up from the shore at night towards its burrow on Kapiti Island, New Zealand.
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Sphenisciformes
Family: Spheniscidae
Genus: Eudyptula
Species:
E. minor
Binomial name
Eudyptula minor
(Forster, 1781)
The range of Eudyptula minor is in blue.[2]

The little penguin (Eudyptula minor) is the smallest species of penguin. It originates from New Zealand. It is commonly known as the fairy penguin, little blue penguin, or blue penguin, owing to its slate-blue plumage and is also known by its Māori name kororā. It is a fossorial bird.[citation needed]

The Australian little penguin (Eudyptula novaehollandiae), from Australia and the Otago region of New Zealand, is considered a separate species.[3][4]

Eudyptula minor feathers are dense in melanosomes which attribute to both their strength to swim fast through the water, and its unique blue colour.[5]

  1. ^ BirdLife International (2020). "Eudyptula minor". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2020: e.T22697805A202126091. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-3.RLTS.T22697805A202126091.en. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
  2. ^ "Fig 1. Map of distribution of Eudyptula penguins. Blue and red colours..." ResearchGate. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
  3. ^ Grosser, Stefanie; Rawlence, Nicolas J.; Anderson, Christian N. K.; Smith, Ian W. G.; Scofield, R. Paul; Waters, Jonathan M. (10 February 2016). "Invader or resident? Ancient-DNA reveals rapid species turnover in New Zealand little penguins". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 283 (1824): 20152879. doi:10.1098/rspb.2015.2879. ISSN 0962-8452. PMC 4760177. PMID 26842575.
  4. ^ Cole, Theresa L; Ksepka, Daniel T; Mitchell, Kieren J; Tennyson, Alan J D; Thomas, Daniel B; Pan, Hailin; Zhang, Guojie; Rawlence, Nicolas J; Wood, Jamie R; Bover, Pere; Bouzat, Juan L (1 April 2019). "Mitogenomes Uncover Extinct Penguin Taxa and Reveal Island Formation as a Key Driver of Speciation". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 36 (4): 784–797. doi:10.1093/molbev/msz017. ISSN 0737-4038. PMID 30722030.
  5. ^ Clarke, Julia A.; et al. (2010). "Fossil Evidence for Evolution of the Shape and Color of Penguin Feathers". Science. 330 (6006): 954–957. doi:10.1126/science.1193604. PMID 20929737.


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