Little penguin
Eudyptula minor
— Where the name comes from
Eudyptula is the diminutive of Eudyptes: “little good diver”. Minor insists on the size again, and so does the common name: three ways of saying the same thing about the only penguin that weighs as much as a small cat. In New Zealand it is the kororā, in Australia the fairy penguin.
— Facts
- Group
- Birds · Aves
- Order
- Penguins
- Habitat
- Coasts with dunes, low cliffs, jetties and harbours
- Range
- New Zealand and southern Australia
- Size
- 30–35 cm, 1–1.5 kg
- Diet
- Small fish, squid, crustaceans
- Lifespan
- 7 years in the wild, over 20 the record
— Characteristics
- 01
It is the smallest penguin in the world and the only slate-blue one.
- 02
It nests in burrows dug in the sand, under bushes or under houses.
- 03
It spends the day at sea and comes ashore only after dark.
— What sets it apart
It comes ashore only at night, and never alone. The groups gather offshore waiting for it to be dark enough, then cross the beach all together at a run: alone they would be easy prey, in a group the risk is spread. At Phillip Island in Australia this daily homecoming has become a spectacle that draws hundreds of spectators every evening onto seating facing the sea, with the single rule that nobody uses a flash. It is probably the wild animal that more people in the world have watched come home from work.
