Adelie Penguin

About the Adelie Penguin

The Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) is a species of penguin common along the entire coast of the Antarctic continent. It is the most widespread penguin species in the Antarctic, and, along with the emperor penguin, is the most southerly distributed of all penguins. It is named after Adélie Land, in turn, named for Adèle Dumont d'Urville, who was married to French explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville, who first discovered this penguin in 1840. Adélie penguins obtain their food by both predation and foraging, with a diet of mainly krill and fish.

The first Adélie penguin specimens were collected by crew members of French explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville on his expedition to Antarctica in the late 1830s and early 1840s. Jacques Bernard Hombron and Honoré Jacquinot, two French surgeons who doubled as naturalists on the journey, described the bird for science in 1841, giving it the scientific name Catarrhactes adeliæ. They used specimens collected from an area of the continent which had been named "terre Adélie", French for Adélie Land, itself named for Dumont d'Urville's wife, Adèle. The bird was later placed in several other genera, including Eudyptes, Pygoscelis... Wikipedia →