Little blue penguins

What’s native to New Zealand, 25 cm tall, cute, a bluey tinge to their fur and are furry? Read on to find out!

Little Blue Penguins are one of the penguins that don’t need ice to live in. (Just a quite cold place!) These penguins only need underground burrows or holes for their homes.

For their food they like to eat squid and other small fish.

Their predators are ferrets, stoats, weasels and New Zealand fur seals.

These unique animals have a call unlike other animals. It sounds a little bit like this: Eee Ooo Eee Ooo. They have different calls when they need them, like if they need to call for help the call sounds different.

The little penguins have a blue tinge, wings but not for flying but shaped like flippers for swimming, webbed feet for waking and a dark coloured beak. These are some of the characteristics of the little blue penguins.

These penguins are rare and are only found in New Zealand and some other places around the world. Blue penguins need to be careful both in the water and in the forest because they have lots of predators who will eat them.

Blue penguins lay eggs around September to November. The penguins in Otago will lay around May to February.
Their breeding cycle starts at June with nest building till the end of July. Next the egg laying starts at the end of July. Later on the chicks hatch and the parents look after them, which takes up to 7 months. At February they start moulting then the cycle begins again.

These are some of the facts about the fascinating life of the little blue penguins.

By Briar.