The tiny penguins are distinguishable for their blue colour and big personalities. They are native to New Zealand, Tasmania and southern Australia
These penguins, also called fairy penguins, weigh less than a three pounds and are barely a foot tall. Image courtesy: @scrippsinstitutionsofoceonography/ Twitter
San Diego’s Birch Aquarium on Tuesday welcomed the world’s smallest penguins as part of an exhibition.
These penguins, also called fairy penguins, weigh less than three pounds and are barely a foot tall.
The penguin exhibition called the Beyster Family Little Blue Penguins habitat, was officially opened by the San Diego mayor Todd Gloria, according to Newsweek.
The Birch Aquarium has created a 2,900 square-foot habitat exhibit that includes a rocky and sandy shore are, an 18,000-gallon pool, various comfortable burrows and a sandy shore area to replicate the coast of New Zealand and Australia to help these penguins feel at home.
This is the first time that these species of penguins have been put on display at a zoo in the Western US.
Other penguin colonies can be found in at the New England aquarium in Boston, the Louisville Zoo in Kentucky, the Cincinnati Zoo in Ohio and the Bronx Zoo in New York.
Here’s all you need to know about the world’s smallest penguin species.
What makes these penguins so special?
The tiny penguins are distinguishable for their blue colour and large personalities.
According to Newsweek, they are also known for making a lot of noise, especially at night.
They are native to New Zealand, Tasmania and southern Australia.
There are 18 different species of penguins but these are the only ones that are blue.
KPBS quoted Kayla Strate, the lead penguin aquarist at Birch, as saying, “Their plumage has a really unique sort of navy colour that really shines in the sun. It has different hues of almost aqua or cornflower blue, and that’s pretty unique to the species.”
The Little Fairy penguins are prey for gulls and sheathbills and sometimes rats, dogs and cats, as per Newsweek.
Newsweek quoted Strate as saying that the aquarium is ‘thrilled’ to have the colony.
She added, “The birds are happy, thriving and adapting nicely to their new surroundings. Eventually, we’re hoping the penguins will form a successful breeding colony.”
Are they endangered?
The Little Blue penguins are increasingly threatened by plastic marine pollution that causes the birds to choke.
As a result of this, their numbers in New South Wales and South Australia have been reducing, with about 69 per cent of colony sites having less than 100 breeding pengiuins.
According to World Wildlife Fund, climate change in general is a growing concern for the penguin population. Commercial fishing, which leaves penguins struggling to find fish to eat, is another threat.
With inputs from agencies
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