White-flippered Penguin

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iWhite-flippered Penguin

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Sphenisciformes
Family:	Spheniscidae
Genus:	Eudyptula
Species:	E. albosignata

Binomial name

Eudyptula albosignata
Finsch, 1874

The White-flippered Penguin (Eudyptula albosignata) is the smallest species of penguin, found in New Zealand. It nests only on Banks Peninsula and Motunau Island, near Canterbury, and is considered to be endangered with only around 3,750 breeding pairs. It is often considered to be a subspecies or even a color morph of the Little Penguin (E. minor). Recent mtDNA analses (Banks et al., 2002) suggest that New Zealand's North Island and the Chatham Island Little Penguins form a distinct species - of which the White-flippered Penguin is probably a subspecies - to the exclusion of South Island and Australian birds (Banks et al., 2002).

Typically growing to 30 cm tall and weighing 1.5 kg, it gains its name from the white markings on its flippers, unique to the species.

[edit] References

Banks, Jonathan C.; Mitchell, Anthony D.; Waas, Joseph R. & Paterson, Adrian M. (2002): An unexpected pattern of molecular divergence within the blue penguin (Eudyptula minor) complex. Notornis 49(1): 29–38. PDF fulltext