Penguin with chin-strap

The penguin with chin-strap ( Pygoscelis antarcticus ) is in manpower, the second more important species of Manchot S after the Gorfou gilded ( Eudyptes chrysolophus ). One counts of them 7.500.000 of couples, of which 5.000.000 would live the Sandwich islands of the south. Its name was given to him because of the black line which traverses its chin. It resembles the Manchot Adelie.

Description

The penguin with adult chin-strap measures from 65 to 80 cm and weighs approximately 4 kg, variable weight to reach a maximum before the moult and a minimum right before raising the small ones. They live mainly in the Antarctic, in the islands Sandwiches of the South, the islands the Shetland of the South, in the archipelago of the the Orkneys of the South, in South Georgia, on the islands Balleny, Bouvet and Peter.

It plunges to nearly 180 meters.

Behavior

Like all the penguins, the penguins with chin-strap nourish themselves only at sea. They fish as a majority of the Krill S, and some small fish. They can plunge to more than 250 meters under water and remain there a score of minutes without breathing. They make jumps out of water being able to go up to 2 meters height.
They are aggressive and noisy animals (so much so that they are called stonebreaker in English, that is to say breaker of rocks because of their cry). They do not get along very well with the Adélie penguin, of which they divide the habitat, because they are accustomed to taking their nests to them. They are moreover rather daring, and can go until fighting with others manchots.

Reproduction

Their Nid is composed simply of a circle of stones and rollers. In April, large colonies of several thousands of individuals are formed. The laying is carried out in the middle of the month and generally includes/understands two eggs: the female lays, then at sea will nourish itself while the male keeps eggs. The parents will alternate then, over periods from 5 to 10 days, the guard of eggs: for this period, they keep eggs out of the contact of the ground, and do not nourish themselves. When they do not keep egg, they remain at sea to be nourished. When the small ones are born, they have a gray sleeping bag. They remain in the nest during 20 to 30 days, for then joining a crib, i.e. a gathering the small ones under the guard of one or two adults, who are not inevitably their parents: the social attitude of the penguins is very developed. When they have 2 months, they moult and acquire their adult plumage: they return then in water and must only be nourished.

See too

Taxonomic references

External bonds

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