Conservation status: Listed as Least Concern under the IUCN Red List.

Whether waddling, jumping with two feet, tobogganing on their bellies or torpedoing through the ocean, the Adélie penguin is a master of traversing the icy terrain it calls home. The fascinating behaviour of a colony of Adélie penguins is enough to keep onlookers entertained for hours, and these social creatures spend much of their time on the Antarctic coast, close to the Australian research stations.

Adélie penguins are carnivores that feed on mostly fish, amphipods, cephalopods and crystal krill (Euphausia crystallorophias). They can dive to great depths of up to 175m in search of a meal, but most feed within the upper 70m of the water column. Breeding adults can swim between 5 and 120km offshore in search of food for their chicks.

It’s difficult to tell males and females apart because they are of a similar size and look identical; both sexes have a white front and a black head and back, giving them their ‘tuxedo’ appearance, as well as white rings around their eyes and a black-and-orange bill.

Habitat
They live on pack ice during the winter but journeys to land in the warmer months to breed on rocky coastal areas of mainland Antarctica and its surrounding islands. 

Distribution
The Adélie penguin is a medium-sized penguin found only within the Antarctic region.

Reproduction
The breeding season lasts from October to February, with females typically laying two eggs in mid-November. Both males and females take turns incubating the eggs for about 36 days until the chicks hatch in late December. Adélies are known to be very dedicated parents, with males and females alternating between caring for the chicks and venturing out to the sea in search of food. When the chicks are about three weeks old, they huddle up to the other juveniles to form a crèche – a French word that literally translates to ‘childcare’ or ‘nursery’ – which offers them protection in numbers as both parents return to the open waters to hunt for food. By February, when the chick is about seven to nine weeks old, the chick’s fluffy down has been replaced with adult feathers and they’re ready to go to sea.

Threats
The Adélie penguin is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, which has retracted sea ice coverage and a reduced the abundance of krill they feed on. They are also impacted by decreasing fish and krill stocks from commercial fishing. Leopard seals are Adélie penguin’s main predator at sea. South polar skuas, sheathbills and southern giant petrels prey on solitary chicks and unguarded eggs.

Fascinating fact
Adèle Dumont d’Urville, wife of French explorer Jules Dumont d’Urville, is the namesake of this species.