White-flippered penguin
| White-flippered penguin | |
|---|---|
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| Pōhatu Marine Reserve, South Island, New Zealand. | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Sphenisciformes |
| Family: | Spheniscidae |
| Genus: | Eudyptula |
| Species: | E. minor (but see text) |
| Subspecies: | E. m. albosignata |
| Trinomial name | |
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Eudyptula minor albosignata Finsch, 1874 |
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| Synonyms | |
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The white-flippered penguin (Eudyptula minor albosignata) is a small penguin about 30 cm (12 in) tall and weighing 1.5 kg (3.3 lb). It gains its name from the white markings on its flippers, unique to the subspecies. It nests only on Banks Peninsula and Motunau Island, near Christchurch, New Zealand, with only around 3,750 breeding pairs.
The white-flippered penguin is currently considered by most taxonomists to be a colour morph or subspecies of the little penguin (E. 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 a second containing little penguins of Australia and the southeastern coast of New Zealand's South Island. Preliminary analysis of braying calls and cluster analysis of morphometrics partially supported these results. In 2008, Shirihai treated the little penguin and white-flippered penguin as allospecies. However, as of 2012, the IUCN and BirdLife International consider the white-flippered penguin to be a subspecies or morph of the little penguin.
White-flippered penguins live in headlands, caves, rock jumbles, and in the sheltered areas at the bases of bays. They are found mostly in Canterbury, New Zealand.
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