By LauraAdelie Penguin Pygoscelis Adelie
By Laura
Appearance: The Adelie Penguins are white on their chest and stomach with a coat of black feathers on their head and back. Not only does that make them look cute but it camouflages them in the water so the leopard seal (who is their enemy) can only see the white part of their body. Instead of wings the Adelies have flippers. They use their flippers as paddles when they are swimming. The Adelies weigh 9-14 pounds and they are 30 inches tall.
Habitat: Adelies live only in Antarctica. They live in rookeries, which are communites of up to 300,000 birds. The Adelies might be clumsy on land but they are graceful in the water. The Penguins don't live in one place - they eat in the water and lay eggs on land.
Food: Adelies eat krill and fish. Krill is two inches long. The Adelies always take turns when it comes to eating. When the females are sitting on the eggs the male goes to eat. When the males are sitting on the eggs the female goes to eat. The male can't stop sitting on the eggs until the female returns for her turn. That could take up to a week. Some Penguins have crops ( special pouches in thier throat) that they use to store food in for their babies. They fill their crop with shrimp or fish and then take it back to their nest and give it to their babies.
Enemies: The Adelie's most dangerous enemy is the Leopard Seal because it has the sharpest teeth of all of the Adelie's enemies. Another one of the Adelie's enemies is a Penguin without babies because it could steal eggs. All Penguins want children. Another enemy that the Adelies have is the skua gull.
Life Cycle: Adelie penguins choose mates in October.The Adelies build nests. The first step in building a nest is to make a hole in the ground. This is hard sometimes because the ground in the rookery could be frozen solid. The next step is collecting rocks. The rocks keep the rookery dry. Sometimes there is a lot of arguing when the Adelies are collecting their eggs. Finally they are done with collecting the eggs. Then they line the nest with the eggs and they are finished with building their nest. They usually lay two eggs. The eggs take about 35 days to hatch. The male and the female live separately in the winter but find each other again in the spring. The feathers on the babies are fuzzy, and when the feathers are even fuzzier it means the baby is cold and the adults have to keep it warm.
Other Facts: When the penguins keep warm, they huddle together in a circle. One or two penguins are in the middle keeping warm. When they are done they change places. Adelies cannot dive in the water until they have their adult feathers. The penguins greet each other buy touching beaks. Adelies skim the surface like a porpoise. Right when the Adelie chicks are born they know how to swim.
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