#Family: Spheniscidae

[haveyouseenthisanimal-irl]

[herpsandbirds]

do you have a favourite penguin!

Oh yes, absolutely!!!

Fairy or Blue or Little Penguin (Eudyptula spp.), family Spheniscidae, order Sphenisciformes, found in coastal areas of New Zealand and southern Australia

This is the smallest penguin.

They nest in burrows at or near the coast.

This species has been split into 2 species, E. minor and E. novaehollandiae was split off in 2016.

photographs by JJ Harrison 

[dougdimmadodo]

Fast Fauna Facts #27 - Royal Penguin (Eudyptes schlegeli)

Family: Penguin Family (Spheniscidae)

IUCN Conservation Status: Near Threatened

Named for their striking yellow crests which resemble crowns, Royal Penguins (not to be mistaken for the much larger Emperor Penguin or King Penguin) are found primarily on Macquarie Island (a small, largely rocky island between southern Aotearoa/New Zealand and northern Antarctica,) although they are also occasionally spotted on other neighbouring islands. Like most penguins Royal Penguins typically roost and nest in large, noisy colonies on rocky, well-vegetated beaches and leave the shore periodically to hunt for small fish, crustaceans and squids; members of this species rarely travel far from their colony when searching for prey, and as such several neighbouring colonies may coexist with limited competition for resources. Royal Penguins were historically extensively hunted for their blubber which was used to produce oil, but following the banning of penguin hunting on Macquarie in the late 1910's their populations have slowly recovered and are now believed to be stable.

----------------------------------------------------

<-Previous (Archimylacris) I Next (Horned Ground Frog) ->

[quillpokebiology]

Delibird Facts

In honor of the upcoming holidays, here are Delibird Facts!

-The scientific name for Delibird is "Avis Holius" which roughly translates to "Holiday bird"

-Delibird are in the Spheniscidae family, making them related to pokemon like Empoleon and Eiscue

-Delibird carry food and other materials in their tail sacs. While they often give this food to other people or pokemon, they will politely refuse if they have young they're caring for

-Delibird are biologically designed to overcollect more food since they end up giving so much away

-While their food has helped many people in desperate times, don't expect to always

-Delibird mate for life

-Yes, Delibird can fly. They just don't do it often. It's actually surprising they can fly, since their wings are very weak and their bodies are very fat

-Their blubber helps keep them warm in cold climates. The Delibird in alola usually have less blubber

-You'd think that with their webbed feet and blubbery bodies, the Delibird would live near water, but there is almost no water on the icy mountain peaks where they make their homes. Their bodies are the biggest hint thst they're recently diverged from Empoleon

-While they can swim well, they're very buoyant and can have trouble swimming in deep waters

-While Delibird were common depictions of Santa, many Unovan movies had instead made Beartic Santa which has spread, so now Delibird are seen as Santa's helpers during the holidays

-Delibird are one of the most common pokemon for post office workers for how much they can carry in their sacs

-Delibird with the largest tails are the most respected in their flocks

-Delbird court each other by singing in groups. The tunes they sing vary between each group, but the songs they sing are called carols

-Delibird will also give their partners rocks as gifts (if I hear someone say anything about how that's stupid, please note how humans do the exact same thing)

-When Delibird first hatch, they come out with completely white down. They gain their red feathers as they reach adulthood

[travelella]

Gentoo Penguins in Antarctica

Birger Strahl

Name: Gentoo penguin

Scientific Name: Pygoscelis papua

Class: Aves

Domain: Eukaryota

Family: Spheniscidae

Location: Antarctica and Sub Antarctic Islands

Conservation status: Least concern

Diet: Crustaceans (krill), fish, squid

DISTRIBUTION

Antarctic Peninsula, Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the Sandwich Islands

ECOSYSTEM/HABITAT

Nest on flat or rocky beaches and beach grass; feed in cold nearshore waters

[critter-captures]

Humboldt penguin (Spheniscus humboldti), family Spheniscidae (penguins)

They have spines on their tongues, as well as in their mouths, used to hold prey and prevent it from escaping.

Young Humboldt penguins have less distinct markings, lacking the breast band of adults (see pink-banded penguin in last picture).

Ouwehands Dierenpark (top 3), Dierenpark Zie-ZOO (bottom 4), taken June 2024

[juliehowlin]

Penguins

All penguin species are native to the Southern Hemisphere, but they don't all live in very cold places. One species, the Galápagos Penguin, lives near the equator.

10 things you might not know about penguins:

[cxnsolatio]

He closed both his mouth and the door to his chambers, head full of potential frameworks and ears ringing with the voices of the crew. His eager companions had flocked right behind him when Law had made his announcement, that he was to have a romantic encounter with a woman that very afternoon — a gaunt hope of it becoming a full-fledged liaison thickening by the minute, so crushing was his hunger for such kind of companionship, and so immense his endearment to the little mermaid — like ducklings strutting with military precision after their mother, mouths overflowing with questions — Who is she? How lovely? Can she make us petit fours? — and squawking unsolicited advice — Pull the door and open her seat. No, that's not right, open the door and pull her seat. Fearful the closing of the door was not enough to deter this most zealous assembly, Law turned the key thrice on its lock, shutting himself in for good measure. While appreciative of the crew's interest in his figurative heart's wellbeing, to meddle in his love life was to overstep duty and camaraderie, and Law required no advice from them on how to be a gentleman.

If Law was anything but, such conduct stemmed from his own reprobate agency and talent for misbehaving. His mother had told him to always be a good boy to the resident Sisters; his father had taught him how to tie a Windsor knot, and together they had harmonised these practical instructions with tacit, visual examples of what love between spouses ought to be like. Before the inferno that had ravaged it all, Law's boyhood had been one full of tenderness and hopes galore for the Trafalgar family.

A quick soak and Law assessed his mien in the mirror. A bit shabby, but not miserable beyond cure. He made himself presentable by ensuring the gaps between his teeth were hygienically empty and his cheeks stubble-free, facial hair only where he fancied it to grow. He groomed his hair, but to no avail, for it would lower under the weight of the comb and then spring back into rebellious spikes here and there, tameable only with pomade Law did not care to keep amongst his toiletries. Oh well. It would have been a mistake, either way, for Law to make himself *too* presentable, so stunning as to send Aya into cardiac arrest. A man did well to harbour a sense of dignified humility about his appearance, and a doctor ought to think of his date's cardiovascular well-being.

Mors, who slumbered in the armchair by the reading nook, stock-still save for his flourishing tail, lazily opened one eye when Law returned to his berth. Not intent on giving up his rest after a morning of mouse-hunting, he assessed the following routine, recognising its potential for entertainment. Law exchanged his tattered jeans for a pair of sleek black trousers, which he belted, and a white shirt he buttoned all the way up. The latter choice, so uncharacteristic of a man with an apparent disregard for fastenings in apparel, earned Law a meow which might as well have been a reproachful interjection. The cat was, of course, right: Law did look a bit much like a penguin — the flightless seabird of the Spheniscidae family; not the human of aquatic namesake member of the Tang family — and so he undid the first two buttons at his throat and torso, an alternative which granted him an approving purr from Mors, or so Law interpreted the sound, even though the feline vibrations may have had an altogether different root.

Law wiped the leather of his shoes clean and polished his earrings too so they glinted in the sunlight. He slung his sword and a jacket over his shoulder, the latter in a matching shade of black, buried his beloved hat over the hair he had worked so hard on, and took a deep breath as the final item on his checklist. The weather demanded no outer garment, but Law could recall his mother telling him a man should always offer a woman his coat when the day's end breeze started blowing over bare shoulders.

Exiting the submarine was no easy task. The moment the keys jingled as Law freed himself from a short-lived, voluntary seclusion in his quarters, the many voices of his crewmates made themselves heard once more, a hubbub which threatened to erase Law's rare moment of merriment. His forehead wrinkled increasingly by the minute as he moved out of the Tang's bowels and onto deck, countenance reverted to its nigh-permanent frown by the time his shoes stepped onto the gangplank of the Lilly and the sunlight reached his eyes, causing the beam that ricocheted off his golden hoops to nearly blind a man unloading a merchant vessel stationed behind the wandering library.

The creases on Law's forehead only softened when he spotted Aya waiting for him, unmistakanable on the account of her pink hair and quaint tailoring. She looked like a princess from one of Lami's illustrated stories, he reckoned. Or like the maiden on the cover of those cheap thrill novels with the simplistic titles and plots, just waiting for a rugged pirate with shoulders the width of an adult wild boar, and a torso just as hairy, to swoon and shanghai her into his vessel, the one with the nondescript figurehead of a mermaid. The fair and pink lady before him would have to settle for an athletic, but rather lanky pirate instead. Law may not share the size of a hog, but at least he did not have the animal's stink either, which was more than could be said of the men adorning the covers of cheap erotica, if a book could indeed be judged by its cover.

At the sight of her bubblegum strands plaited and adorned with flowers, crowned with the one his present, Law felt something tug at his heartstrings, as though in an attempt to play him like he would his violin back in his bedroom. She was the picture of beauty and innocence, and a part of him lamented he had ever thought himself deserving of anything so pure and sweet. The other part of him said that, if the fictional himbo of novellas could enrapture the peasant virgin with the heaving breast underneath her cotton dress which left little to the imagination, so could he.

He frowned, and with his free hand gesticulated vaguely around Aya's impossible halo. ❝ No, no, no! ❞ Law protested. ❝ You got it all wrong, Pinky. I said 'look nice for dessert'. I never said you should dress like dessert! ❞ And he tutted for good measure, once more resorting to dramatic flair to mask meeker feelings. It could not be helped, he supposed, that Aya should always look as delectable as an ostentatious pastry.

Law offered Aya his arm to take and guided her down the structure, into the town. As it happened with all other instances of his life, Law had devised a plan for their date.

The town's square was an old thing straight out of a storybook, with flocks of pigeons searching for their daily bread stashed along the fissures of the cobbled streets, the humbly adorned but large fountain in the centre, and the businesses that gathered around it in the manner of shops and stalls alike. Evocative of Flevance, Law noted. There was a bookshop both he and his date (and how odd and oddly satisfying it was to refer to Ayaka by this very word) would enjoy visiting, even if between their personal archives and Lilly's public one they had thousands to spare. One could never have too many books. There, an old lady sold colourful ribbons for young girls to wear on their hair or older ones around their hats as they went about their daily affairs. Another, even older woman sold flowers. Law mapped out all of these important locations for afterward.

First, there was the issue of the ice cream he had promised Aya while still using Bepo's potential interest in the mermaid as subterfuge to his own infatuation.

Law asked the vendor for two strawberry cones, imagining they would be pale, coloured only by the fruit's natural pigment and possibly a few slices of the berries on top. As it turned out, the frozen scoops were a vivid pink to rival Aya's hair and were covered in heart-shaped sprinkles, white and red. To be seen holding, let alone feasting on such a whimsical treat fit only for children and women embarrassed him, and Law frowned at the trader, causing the man to shudder.

❝ I hope you're happy. ❞ He commented with the littlest bit of bile in his words, as though the ice cream had been her choice. But behind the usual acidic tones, Law did hope Aya was happy and not at all regretful of accepting his invitation.

From the poem 'Jabberwocky', Carroll's perplexing but somehow fitting words echoed in Law's busy head in a sing-song manner to celebrate the miraculous achievement, as well as to vex him further for ever remembering them. O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! What other nonsense remained stored in the coffers of his memories, staining an intellect cultivated by far more serious writers? For all his absurdity, you would not catch Gogol exclaiming neither 'callooh' nor 'callay'. And of Carroll himself, why must Law remember the childish nonsense and not the mathematical logic he penned? 'Frabjous' indeed that he had a potentially romantic rendezvous with a woman. It was the kind of triumph minstrels recited to kings. The kind his crew would eternalise in song, once they knew their captain had a date.

❝ Yes, ah, splendid. ❞ He managed to squeeze out, temporarily devoid of eloquence, hand rushing to remove Aya's from his cheek. While the librarian had every right to feel unwelcome, even offended at how abruptly her display of sweetness had ended, Law hoped she remained neutral about it, commenting nothing of his sweeping or of the additional pair of seconds he permitted his palm to rest against the back of her hand, before returning to its rightful place in his denim pocket.

❝ Be a dear and wear something nice. Among my peers, I'm quite the fashion icon, you know? ❞ He said, from the height of darkened plumes sprouting from all around his neck, a wardrobe feature that made him resemble a vulture's young whereas his attitude was more akin to a peacock's. Hardly fashionable or iconic, and certainly not sightly. Were his neck or frame any slimmer, the vision would have been categorically pathetic. ❝ I shan't be seen with a raggedy-looking girl. ❞

Law stroked his goatee in silent contemplation. He, too, had to hurry and prepare himself for his date. Starting with his facial hair, was it perfectly trimmed and manly, the type a lady might fawn over? Where had he last spotted his finest aloha shirt, the one with the procession of tigers baring their fangs at each and every onlooker? He was certain all of his jeans were covered in cat hair, which he would have to painstakingly remove with a lint roller, maybe even mend with some thread, between a coffee and a cigarette while everyone else got ready for bed.

Before he could further contemplate upon the state of his looks and brave the unavoidable topic of his nether regions, Law grabbed his pocket watch and feigned interest in its ever-incessant dials. ❝ I'll come to pick you up whenever I come to pick you up. ❞ Unhelpful as always, he aimed to displease.

The watch returned to its place and he waved a stern finger over Aya's nose. ❝ No take-backs! Callooh! Callay! ❞ His face blanched out the very second the stupid words left his lips, now pursed as though he'd tasted the most bitter of lemon candies. Colour returned to his face in a profuse blush. Law covered his mouth with both tattooed hands, effectively muffling a shriek of horror. Damn Bepo and his adorable pleadings for Law to read him bedtime stories! Now his head was full of useless nonsense!

As he trudged away without so much as a goodbye, Law muttered all insults and curses he could think of. Effective immediately, children's literature was entirely prohibited from entering the Tang's library.

[haveyouseenthisanimal-irl]

[herpsandbirds]

African Penguins (Spheniscus demersus), family Spheniscidae, order Sphenisciformes, Boulders Penguin Colony, Table Mountain National Park, South Africa

ENDANGERED.

photographs via: SANParks - Table Mountain National Park

[travelella]

King Penguins in South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (British Overseas Territory)

Birger Strahl

Scientific name: Aptenodytes patagonicus

Conservation status: Least Concern (Population increasing) 

Mass: 21 – 38 lbs

Family: Spheniscidae

Class: Aves

Domain: Eukaryota

Genus: Aptenodytes

The king penguin is the second largest species of penguin, smaller, but somewhat similar in appearance to the emperor penguin. There are two subspecies, A. p. patagonicus and A. p. halli; patagonicus is found in the South Atlantic and halli in the South Indian Ocean and at Macquarie Island.

[juliehowlin]

World Penguin Day

All penguin species are native to the Southern Hemisphere, but they don't all live in very cold places. One species, the Galápagos Penguin, lives near the equator.

On World Penguin Day, 10 things you might not know about penguins:

[fuzzysparrow]

Penguins, of the 'Spheniscidae' family, are aquatic flightless birds that live predominantly in the Southern Hemisphere, with the exception of the Galápagos penguin, found north of the Equator.

The 'Spheniscidae' are divided into several subfamilies, each of whom have adapted to their surrounding climate. 'Aptenodytes', or great penguins, include the Emperor and King penguins found in Antarctica. 'Pygoscelis Wagler', or brush-tailed penguins, live in more humid areas, for instance, the Gentoo penguin found on the Falkland Islands. 'Eudyptula Bonaparte', or little penguins, are found in Australia and New Zealand, whereas the 'Megadyptes', such as yellow-eyed penguins, only live in the latter.

'Eudyptes Vieillot', or crested penguins, such as the Macaroni penguin, tend to live around the Indian ocean. 'Spheniscus Brisson', or banded penguins, which include the Galápagos penguin, frequent the coasts of South America and Africa.

Although most people associate penguins with snow and freezing temperatures, the majority live in the tropics. They are easily recognised by their countershaded dark and white plumage and flippers for swimming.

[scottpartridge]

The penguins, order Sphenisciformes, family Spheniscidae. This graphic is part of the AVE (Avian Vector Encyclopedia), an ongoing project. 

[symbiotic-science]

Abstract

Penguins are classified in the order Sphenisciformes into a single family, Spheniscidae. The genus Pygoscelis Wagler, 1832, is composed of three species, Pygoscelis antarcticus Forster, 1781, P. papua Forster, 1781 and P.adeliae Hombron & Jacquinot, 1841. In this work, the objective was to describe and to compare the karyotypes of Pygoscelis penguins contributing genetic information to Sphenisciformes. The metaphases were obtained by lymphocyte culture, and the diploid number and the C-banding pattern were determined. P. antarcticus has 2n = 92, P. papua 2n = 94 and P. adeliae exhibited 2n = 96 in males and 2n = 95 in females. The difference of diploid number in P. adeliae was identified as a multiple sex chromosome system where males have Z1Z1Z2Z2 and females Z1Z2W. The C-banding showed the presence of a heterochromatic block in the long arm of W chromosome and Z2 was almost entirely heterochromatic. The probable origin of a multiple system in P. adeliae was a translocation involving the W chromosome and the chromosome ancestral to Z2. The comparison made possible the identification of a high karyotype homology in Sphenisciformes which can be seen in the conservation of macrochromosomes and in the Z chromosome. The karyotypic divergences in Pygoscelis are restricted to the number of microchromosomes and W, which proved to be highly variable in size and morphology. The data presented in this work corroborate molecular phylogenetic proposals, supporting the monophyletic origin of penguins and intraspecific relations.

[haveyouseenthisanimal-irl]