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74-603: Eudyptula minor Eudyptula novaehollandiae The genus Eudyptula ("good little diver") contains two species of penguin , found in southern Australia , Tasmania , and New Zealand (including the Chatham Islands ). They are commonly known as the little penguin , little blue penguin, or, in Australia, fairy penguin. In the language of the Māori people of New Zealand , little penguins are known as kororā . For many years,

148-413: A configuration of landmarks. There are three recognized categories of landmarks. Type 1 landmarks are defined locally, i.e. in terms of structures close to that point; for example, an intersection between three sutures, or intersections between veins on an insect wing are locally defined and surrounded by tissue on all sides. Type 3 landmarks , in contrast, are defined in terms of points far away from

222-515: A white-flippered form of the little penguin found only in North Canterbury , New Zealand was considered either a separate species, Eudyptula albosignata , or just a subspecies, Eudyptula minor albosignata . Analysis of mtDNA revealed that Eudyptula falls instead into two groups: a western one, found along the southern coast of Australia and the Otago region of New Zealand, and another found in

296-644: A 30 km radius of their nest. Research conducted on the Philip Island colony found the spatial segregeation of foraging behaviour was primarily determined by age rather than biological sex. In long lived species such as seabirds, it is during the middle age of their lifetimes where they are expected to be in the best physical condition. This is why in Eudyptula minor , middle aged individuals foraged at greater distances from their nests and were able to dive greater distances Older penguins are found to forage closer to

370-617: A change of gravel in their enclosure. It is still not known what caused the deaths of the penguins, and it was decided not to return the 12 surviving penguins to the same enclosure where the penguins became ill. A new enclosure for the little penguin colony was opened at Sea World in 2008. In New Zealand, Eudyptula penguin exhibits exist at the Auckland Zoo , the Wellington Zoo , the International Antarctic Centre and

444-501: A large group after dusk and walk along the shore to reach their nesting sites. This may be an effective predator avoidance strategy by traveling in a large group simultaneously. This has not been seen by those of the New Zealand lineage. Eudyptula minor only recently encountered terrestrial vertebrate predators, while Eudyptula novaehollandiae would have had to deal with carnivorous marsupials . Eudyptula minor breeds along most of

518-464: A major oil spill with the grounding of the Rena off New Zealand in 2011, which killed 2,000 seabirds (including little penguins) directly, and killed an estimated 20,000 in total based on wider ecosystem impacts. Oil spills are the most common cause of the little penguins being admitted to the rehabilitation facilities at Phillip Island Nature Park (PINP). These oil spill recurrences have endangered not just

592-400: A season. Double brooding is more likely to occur in individuals who lay their first clutch, prior to mid-September. While there is some inter annual variability, the most common period for little penguins to lay their first clutch in spring, mid-September is considered early and gives species time left in the season to lay a second clutch of eggs after the first have fledged Double brooding

666-496: A second containing little penguins of Australia and the Otago region of New Zealand. Preliminary analysis of braying calls and cluster analysis of morphometrics partially supported these results. A 2016 study described the Australian little penguin as a new and separate species, Eudyptula novaehollandiae . E. minor is endemic to New Zealand, while E. novaehollandiae is found in Australia and Otago. A 2019 study supported

740-471: A separate species. Eudyptula minor feathers are dense in melanosomes which attribute to both their strength to swim fast through the water, and its unique blue colour. The little penguin was first described by German naturalist Johann Reinhold Forster in 1781. Several subspecies are known, but a precise classification of these is still a matter of dispute. The holotypes of the subspecies E. m. variabilis and Eudyptula minor chathamensis are in

814-499: A small foraging range, and therefore higher possibility of competition when prey availability is more scarce Particularly during breeding season when energy demands for both parents and chicks are at their highest, in order to survive Eudyptula minor adapt to these constraints by increasing the plasticity and variability in their foraging behaviour, which includes spatial, age, or diet based segregation During chick rearing, parents will make on average one day long foraging trips within

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888-462: A source of error EFA also suffers from redundancy in that not all variables are independent. On the other hand, it is possible to apply them to complex curves without having to define a centroid; this makes removing the effect of location, size and rotation much simpler. The perceived failings of outline morphometrics are that it does not compare points of a homologous origin, and that it oversimplifies complex shapes by restricting itself to considering

962-412: Is a behaviour which its onset can be strongly influenced by sea surface temperature, age and food availability Warmer sea surface temperature in summer and autumn corellated with earlier laying of first clutch of eggs increasing the chances of double brooding. In contrast, in New Zealand it was observed that during periods of El Niño Southern Oscilation where colder temperature water was being brought to

1036-541: Is an important technology built on many of these principles. Methods based on diffeomorphic flows are used in For example, deformations could be diffeomorphisms of the ambient space, resulting in the LDDMM ( Large Deformation Diffeomorphic Metric Mapping ) framework for shape comparison. On such deformations is the right invariant metric of Computational Anatomy which generalizes the metric of non-compressible Eulerian flows but to include

1110-406: Is arbitrary but which provide information about curvature in two or three dimensions. Shape analysis begins by removing the information that is not about shape. By definition, shape is not altered by translation, scaling or rotation. Thus, to compare shapes, the non-shape information is removed from the coordinates of landmarks. There is more than one way to do these three operations. One method

1184-517: Is available. When prey is larger and individuals are only catching 1-2 items at a time, they are more likely to hunt alone to reduce competition, whereas smaller and more mobile prey, or schooling prey species, promote group hunting to enable efficient encirclement. The Oamaru colony predominantly feeds on smaller schooling species such as sprat and gudgeon, while penguins from the Stewart/Codfish Island colonies more often hunt alone. The latter

1258-513: Is known is colonies in New Zealand commonly consist of smaller fragmented groups in comparison to Australias larger colonies, some with <10 breeding pairs, this is largely attributed to NZs fragmented coastline separating the larger colonies. This is commonly seen in Kaikoura where 6-7 smaller colonies have been found along 1.7% of coastline Little penguins are central place foragers, meaning they will travel distances to forage but always return to

1332-478: Is likely linked to a predominantly cephalopods diet (58% of prey items at < 10 gm each). Rising ocean temperatures has seen a trend towards earlier onset of breeding in Eudyptula minor but this does not always align with the availability of their prey. This is because higher sea surface temperatures are associated with early onset of nesting, but also associated with lower nutrients and oxygen availability. During

1406-513: Is not considered endangered in New Zealand, with the exception of the white-flippered subspecies found only on Banks Peninsula and nearby Motunau Island . Since the 1960s, the mainland population has declined by 60-70%; though a small increase has occurred on Motunau Island. A colony exists in Wellington Harbor on Matiu / Somes Island . Protestors have opposed the development of a marina at Kennedy Point, Waiheke Island in New Zealand for

1480-410: Is not needed for this purpose unless the method requires inverting the variance-covariance matrix. Landmark data allow the difference between population means, or the deviation an individual from its population mean, to be visualized in at least two ways. One depicts vectors at landmarks that show the magnitude and direction in which that landmark is displaced relative to the others. The second depicts

1554-676: Is that most will be highly correlated; as a result, there are few independent variables despite the many measurements. For instance, tibia length will vary with femur length and also with humerus and ulna length and even with measurements of the head. Traditional morphometric data are nonetheless useful when either absolute or relative sizes are of particular interest, such as in studies of growth. These data are also useful when size measurements are of theoretical importance such as body mass and limb cross-sectional area and length in studies of functional morphology. However, these measurements have one important limitation: they contain little information about

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1628-703: Is that the Procrustes superimposition uses a least-squares criterion to find the optimal rotation; consequently, variation that is localized to a single landmark will be smeared out across many. This is called the 'Pinocchio effect'. Another is that the superimposition may itself impose a pattern of covariation on the landmarks. Additionally, any information that cannot be captured by landmarks and semilandmarks cannot be analyzed, including classical measurements like "greatest skull breadth". Moreover, there are criticisms of Procrustes-based methods that motivate an alternative approach to analyzing landmark data. Diffeomorphometry

1702-403: Is that, if landmark approaches to morphometrics can be used to test biological hypotheses in the absence of homology data, it is inappropriate to fault outline-based approaches for enabling the same types of studies. Multivariate statistical methods can be used to test statistical hypotheses about factors that affect shape and to visualize their effects. To visualize the patterns of variation in

1776-512: Is the focus on comparison of shapes and forms with a metric structure based on diffeomorphisms, and is central to the field of computational anatomy . Diffeomorphic registration, introduced in the 90s, is now an important player with existing code bases organized around ANTS, DARTEL, DEMONS, LDDMM , StationaryLDDMM are examples of actively used computational codes for constructing correspondences between coordinate systems based on sparse features and dense images. Voxel-based morphometry (VBM)

1850-405: 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. The Australian little penguin ( Eudyptula novaehollandiae ), from Australia and the Otago region of New Zealand, is considered

1924-501: Is thought to be some of the main reasons for increased vulnerability in the future. The threats it provides include nest and habitat distruption, as well as deadly to eggs and individuals, despite this Eudyptula minor appears to show no fear towards fire when directly exposed. When observed, they have been to found to remain around or under vegetation until severely burnt or injured. Some have even been observed preening their feathers near to open flames. Fires can also significantly alter

1998-400: Is to fix the coordinates of two points to (0,0) and (0,1), which are the two ends of a baseline. In one step, the shapes are translated to the same position (the same two coordinates are fixed to those values), the shapes are scaled (to unit baseline length) and the shapes are rotated. An alternative, and preferred method, is Procrustes superimposition . This method translates the centroid of

2072-736: The Bronx Zoo , and the Cincinnati Zoo . [REDACTED] Animals portal Morphometrics "Morphometrics", in the broader sense, is also used to precisely locate certain areas of organs such as the brain, and in describing the shapes of other things. Three general approaches to form are usually distinguished: traditional morphometrics, landmark-based morphometrics and outline-based morphometrics. Traditional morphometrics analyzes lengths, widths, masses, angles, ratios and areas. In general, traditional morphometric data are measurements of size. A drawback of using many measurements of size

2146-485: The Eudyptula minor colonies currently facing decline The data shows highest level of penguin mortality is caused by roadkill, likely due to many of the colonies being close to coastal highway. To mitigate this issue, a penguin-proof fence was erected in 2019 across 3.3 km of highway where road kill was most prevalent, no roadkill deaths have been recorded since its implementation The risk of fire damage to habitats in Philip Island has been partially mitigated through

2220-458: The Eudyptula novaehollandiae the lineage of little blue penguins which inhabit Australian and Otago regions, there is not evidence to suggest this is an established behaviour within Eudyptula minor , however double broods are occasionally noticed among the colonies in the Kaikoura coastline It is unsure yet whether this is means double brooding is a genetically mediated behaviour. There is also an uneven distribution of research carried out across

2294-694: The National Aquarium of New Zealand . Since 2017, the National Aquarium of New Zealand, has featured a monthly "Penguin of the Month" board, declaring two of their resident animals the "Naughty" and "Nice" penguin for that month. Photos of the board have gone viral and gained the aquarium a large worldwide social media following. In the United States, Eudyptula penguins can be seen at the Louisville Zoo

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2368-593: The Taronga Zoo in Sydney . Enclosures include nesting boxes or similar structures for the animals to retire into, a reconstruction of a pool and in some cases, a transparent aquarium wall to allow patrons to view the animals underwater while they swim. Eudyptula penguin exhibit exists at Sea World , on the Gold Coast, Queensland , Australia. In early March 2007, 25 of the 37 penguins died from an unknown toxin following

2442-410: The brain . Histomorphometry of bone involves obtaining a bone biopsy specimen and processing of bone specimens in the laboratory, obtaining estimates of the proportional volumes and surfaces occupied by different components of bone. First the bone is broken down by baths in highly concentrated ethanol and acetone . The bone is then embedded and stained so that it can be visualized/analyzed under

2516-436: The "fit to a polynomial curve" and Principal components quantitative analysis have been superseded by the two main modern approaches: eigenshape analysis , and elliptic Fourier analysis (EFA), using hand- or computer-traced outlines. The former involves fitting a preset number of semilandmarks at equal intervals around the outline of a shape, recording the deviation of each step from semilandmark to semilandmark from what

2590-582: The Oamaru colony of Eudyptula minor , however in 1995 the availability of species from 20% in December to 0% in January the following year. Penguins were able to successfully adapt and their diet instead began to consist of slender sprat and pigfish If penguins produce a second clutch of eggs in a season once the first chicks have fledged, this is known as double brooding. Thus far this behaviour has only been observed in

2664-464: The Sobolev norm ensuring smoothness of the flows, metrics have now been defined associated to Hamiltonian controls of diffeomorphic flows. Outline analysis is another approach to analyzing shape. What distinguishes outline analysis is that coefficients of mathematical functions are fitted to points sampled along the outline. There are a number of ways of quantifying an outline. Older techniques such as

2738-593: The ability to reclaim success early suggests it is likely that successful double brooding is a behaviour that improves with age. Another influencing factor is the availability of food, for larger colonies such as the Philip Islands, competition for food can increase significantly during the breeding season, particularly if there is variability in the amount of prey available. If this competition results in aggression between adults this can also influence ability to successfully raise chicks, and be able to successfully breed in

2812-561: The angle of that step would be were the object a simple circle. The latter defines the outline as the sum of the minimum number of ellipses required to mimic the shape. Both methods have their weaknesses; the most dangerous (and easily overcome) is their susceptibility to noise in the outline. Likewise, neither compares homologous points, and global change is always given more weight than local variation (which may have large biological consequences). Eigenshape analysis requires an equivalent starting point to be set for each specimen, which can be

2886-432: The arrival of the Australian species in New Zealand was determined to have occurred roughly between AD 1500 and 1900. When the E. minor population declined in New Zealand, it left a genetic opening for E. novaehollandiae . The decrease of E. minor was most likely due to anthropogenic effects, such as being hunted by humans as well as introduced predators, including dogs brought from overseas. It has been determined that

2960-407: The breeding season parents are restricted to a short foraging area close to their nest and are therefore vulnerable to small regional changes. La Niña Southern Oscilation events increasing the sea surface temperature along the New Zealand coastline caused prey such as schooling fish and krill to either become more regionally scarce or migrate to new habitats. Grahams Gudgeon once dominated the diet of

3034-417: The case of shells and horns he gave a fairly precise analysis… But he also drew various pictures of fishes and skulls, and argued that they were related by deformations of coordinates. Shape analysis is widely used in ecology and evolutionary biology to study plasticity, evolutionary changes in shape and in evolutionary developmental biology to study the evolution of the ontogeny of shape, as well as

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3108-538: The chin to the belly. Their flippers are blue in colour. The dark grey-black beak is 3–4 cm long, the irises pale silvery- or bluish-grey or hazel, and the feet pink above with black soles and webbing. An immature individual will have a shorter bill and lighter upperparts. Like most seabirds, the Eudyptula species have a long lifespan. The average for the species is 6.5 years, but flipper ringing experiments show that in very exceptional cases they may live up to 25 years in captivity. Eudyptula minor does not have

3182-487: The coastline of New Zealand, including the Chatham Islands . However, Eudyptula minor does not occur in Otago , which is located on the east coast of New Zealand's South Island . The Australian species Eudyptula novaehollandiae occurs in Otago. E. novaehollandiae was originally endemic to Australia. Using ancient-DNA analysis and radiocarbon dating using historical, pre-human, as well as archaeological Eudyptula remains,

3256-517: The collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa . The white-flippered penguin ( E. m. albosignata or E. m. minor morpha albosignata ) is currently considered by most taxonomists to be a colour morph or subspecies of Eudyptula minor. In 2008, Shirihai treated the little penguin and white-flippered penguin as allospecies . However, as of 2012, the IUCN and BirdLife International consider

3330-848: The composition of vegetation in Eudyptula minor habitats. A large fire in Marion Bay, South Australia in 1994 saw the loss of two key plant species; introduced marram grass Ammophila and coastal wattle A.sophorae . Following the fire, these grasses were replaced by invasive palms A.arenia and A.sophorae grew back in dense thickets. This habitat became no longer suitable for Eudyptula minor and colony relocated. Eudyptula species are classified as "at risk - declining" under New Zealand's Wildlife Act 1953 . Overall, little penguin populations in New Zealand have been decreasing. Some colonies have become extinct, and others continue to be at risk. Some new colonies have been established in urban areas. The species

3404-498: The data, because the data are coordinates of landmarks : discrete anatomical loci that are arguably homologous in all individuals in the analysis (i.e. they can be regarded as the "same" point in each specimens in the study). For example, where two specific sutures intersect is a landmark, as are intersections between veins on an insect wing or leaf, or foramina , small holes through which veins and blood vessels pass. Landmark-based studies have traditionally analyzed 2D data, but with

3478-462: The data, the data need to be reduced to a comprehensible (low-dimensional) form. Principal component analysis (PCA) is a commonly employed tool to summarize the variation. Simply put, the technique projects as much of the overall variation as possible into a few dimensions. See the figure at the right for an example. Each axis on a PCA plot is an eigenvector of the covariance matrix of shape variables. The first axis accounts for maximum variation in

3552-487: The developmental origins of developmental stability, canalization and modularity. Many other applications of shape analysis in ecology and evolutionary biology can be found in the introductory text: Zelditch, ML; Swiderski, DL; Sheets, HD (2012). Geometric Morphometrics for Biologists: A Primer . London: Elsevier: Academic Press. In neuroimaging , the most common variants are voxel-based morphometry , deformation-based morphometry and surface-based morphometry of

3626-420: The diet of the Philip Island colony has diversified to include selections of cephalopods and krill during the post guard stage of their life cycle where greater amounts of energy is required for chick development and egg production, resident penguins predominantly rely on anchovies when more energy is required. The nature of their diet also impacts foraging methods, which may vary by colony depending on what food

3700-485: The difference via the thin plate splines , an interpolation function that models change between landmarks from the data of changes in coordinates of landmarks. This function produces what look like deformed grids; where regions that relatively elongated, the grid will look stretched and where those regions are relatively shortened, the grid will look compressed. D'Arcy Thompson in 1917 suggested that shapes in many different species could also be related in this way. In

3774-490: The distinct bright blue feathers that distinguish Eudyptula novaehollandiae. In addition, the vocalisation patterns of the New Zealand lineage located on Tiritiri Matangi Island vary from the Australian lineage located in Oamaru . Females are known to prefer the local call of the New Zealand lineage. There are also behavioural differences that help differentiate these penguins. Those of the Australian lineage will swim together in

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3848-488: The greatest terrestrial risk to little penguins and include cats, dogs, rats, and particularly ferrets and stoats . As examples significant dog attacks have been recorded at the colony at Little Kaiteriteri Beach, and a suspected stoat or ferret attack at Doctor's Point near Dunedin , New Zealand, claimed the lives of 29 little blue penguins in November 2014. Little penguin populations have been significantly affected by

3922-444: The increasing availability of 3D imaging techniques, 3D analyses are becoming more feasible even for small structures such as teeth. Finding enough landmarks to provide a comprehensive description of shape can be difficult when working with fossils or easily damaged specimens. That is because all landmarks must be present in all specimens, although coordinates of missing landmarks can be estimated. The data for each individual consists of

3996-404: The landmark, and are often defined in terms of a point "furthest away" from another point. Type 2 landmarks are intermediate; this category includes points such as the tip structure, or local minima and maxima of curvature. They are defined in terms of local features, but they are not surrounded on all sides. In addition to landmarks, there are semilandmarks , points whose position along a curve

4070-506: The little penguins, but the entire penguin population. This can further decline the population, which can lead to possible extinction. Increased frequency of drought and extreme temperatures in Southern Australia has led to an increased fire risk. Being flightless birds that nest on land, little blue penguins are especially vulnerable to fire. Behavioural traits such as reluctancy to abandon nests and emerging mostly during daylit hours

4144-464: The mean shape. In the case of semi-landmarks, variation in position along the curve is also removed. Because shape space is curved, analyses are done by projecting shapes onto a space tangent to shape space. Within the tangent space, conventional multivariate statistical methods such as multivariate analysis of variance and multivariate regression, can be used to test statistical hypotheses about shape. Procrustes-based analyses have some limitations. One

4218-404: The next season. During the breeding season, Eudyptula minor are central place foragers, this means that they travel within their home range to find food, but will return to their nest to feed both themselves and their chicks. Their foraging range is limited by how long chicks can fast, and the high energetic of costs of constant travelling for individuals. Such a behaviour has resulted in both

4292-489: The outline and not internal changes. Also, since it works by approximating the outline by a series of ellipses, it deals poorly with pointed shapes. One criticism of outline-based methods is that they disregard homology – a famous example of this disregard being the ability of outline-based methods to compare a scapula to a potato chip. Such a comparison which would not be possible if the data were restricted to biologically homologous points. An argument against that critique

4366-540: The planting of fire-resistant indigenous vegetation in and around the nesting sites. Thus far this planting has occurred primarily in the <10% of the colony most visible from tourist look-out points In 1997 in NSW, the Eudyptula minor was listed as an endangered species under the endangered species act 1995. Since then conservation efforts such as public education, nest monitoring and labelling it as ‘critical habitat’ were implemented. Despite these efforts, this mainland colony

4440-625: The population of Eudyptula novaehollandiae in Otago arrived even more recently than previously estimated due to mulitlocus coalescent analyses. Outside of the Otago region, all colonies are expected to belong to the sub species Eudyptula novaehollandiae Many of these colonies are smaller and more patchily distributed than larger Eudyptula minor colonies that exist in Australia and Otago. Extensive research exists on Philip Island and Oamaru colonies as they are sites of large colonies which attract large groups of tourists Population size and trends of colonies in New Zealand remain poorly documented, what

4514-647: The recognition of E. minor and E. novaehollandiae as separate species. This IUCN assessment treats Eudyptula minor and Eudyptula novaehollandiae as just one species. Are used interchangeably throughout report to specify location, however are considered a part of the same species Like those of all penguins , the wings of Eudyptula species have developed into flippers used for swimming. Eudyptula species typically grow to between 30 and 33 cm (12 and 13 in) tall and on average weigh 1.5 kg (3.3 lb). The head and upper parts are blue in colour, with slate-grey ear coverts fading to white underneath, from

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4588-412: The rest of New Zealand. These two groups are now considered full species: Eudyptula novaehollandiae in Australia and Otago, and Eudyptula minor elsewhere. E. novaehollandiae probably arrived in New Zealand from Australia less than 500 years ago, following the local extinction of E. minor in Otago. Order Sphenisciformes Eudyptula minor The little penguin ( Eudyptula minor )

4662-531: The risk it poses to little penguins and their habitat. Protesters claimed that they exhausted all legal means to oppose the project and have had to resort to occupation and non-violent resistance. Several arrests have been made for trespassing. The West Coast Penguin Trust and DOC have worked in collaboration to maintain data on penguin mortality, the West Coast South Island colonies are highlighted as one of

4736-440: The same nest or colony. They are also a species where both parents are required to raise chicks, and alternate foraging trips while the other is guarding and incubating the nest during the post guard stage. These stints can last anywhere between 1–10 days during incubation. Despite nesting on the shore, little penguins forage at sea and feed on a diet ranging from small schooling fish, to cephalopods, krill, and microzooplankton. As

4810-436: The sample, with further axes representing further ways in which the samples vary. The pattern of clustering of samples in this morphospace represents similarities and differences in shapes, which can reflect phylogenetic relationships . As well as exploring patterns of variation, Multivariate statistical methods can be used to test statistical hypotheses about factors that affect shape and to visualize their effects, although PCA

4884-403: The sea floor. Foraging efficiency has been found to be significantly influenced by age. Foraging success appears to stabilise selection for middle-aged penguins, as feeding is a learnt behaviour but also requires good physical condition. For the Philip Island and other Southern Australian colonies, anchovies are the primary food source. Anchovies are rich in oils and nutritional value. Although

4958-415: The shapes to (0,0); the x coordinate of the centroid is the average of the x coordinates of the landmarks, and the y coordinate of the centroid is the average of the y -coordinates. Shapes are scaled to unit centroid size, which is the square root of the summed squared distances of each landmark to the centroid. The configuration is rotated to minimize the deviation between it and a reference, typically

5032-421: The shore than middle aged adults When foraging in groups, they were also observed to all be of a similar age cohort, likely that when the prey available is small schooling prey and is more advantageous for penguins to forage as a group If the groups are segregated by age, this is likely because they are at the same foraging ability and occupy the same approximate range Introduced mammalian predators present

5106-412: The spatial distribution of shape changes across the organism. They are also useful when determining the extent to which certain pollutants have affected an individual. These indices include the hepatosomatic index, gonadosomatic index and also the condition factors (shakumbila, 2014). In landmark-based geometric morphometrics, the spatial information missing from traditional morphometrics is contained in

5180-423: The species is widely distributed across a range of habitats in New Zealand and Australia, variation in diet and foraging choice has also arisen. Important little penguin prey items include arrow squid , slender sprat , Graham's gudgeon , red cod , and ahuru . Little penguins feed by hunting small clupeoid fish, cephalopods , and crustaceans , for which they travel and dive quite extensively, including to

5254-468: The sub species of little penguin the Eudyptula novaehollandiae are disproportionally researched more than others because they occur in large colonies which such as the Philip Island penguin parade, and the Oamaru penguin colony which have attracted international and local tourism and are understanding their behaviours are important to economic success In a study carried out on Oamaru penguin colony found double broods to increase breeding success by up to 75%

5328-406: The surface there was a delay in the onset of breeding for the Eudyptula novaehollaniae , thus resulting in a lower incidence of double brooding in the Otago colonies. Age is also believed to be a factor effecting double brooding because the pairs successfully able to double brood were most commonly strategic in reclaiming successful nests and pair-bonds. Little penguins show a high nest fidelity, and

5402-410: The white-flippered penguin to be a subspecies or morph of the little penguin. Little penguins from New Zealand and Australia were once considered to be the same species, called Eudyptula minor . Analysis of mtDNA in 2002 revealed two clades in Eudyptula : one containing little penguins of New Zealand's North Island , Cook Strait and Chatham Island , as well as the white-flippered penguin, and

5476-630: Was met with additional challenges from threats from wild dogs and foxes, to lack of available local prey. Species is now listed as at-risk declining under the same act Zoological exhibits featuring purpose-built enclosures for Eudyptula species can be seen in Australia at the Adelaide Zoo , Melbourne Zoo , the National Zoo & Aquarium in Canberra , Perth Zoo , Caversham Wildlife Park (Perth), Ballarat Wildlife Park , Sea Life Sydney Aquarium , and

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