Little Penguin Facts

Little Penguins live on rocky shores in New Zealand and Australia. They are known in New Zealand as Little Blue Penguins.

Little penguins can reach 13 inches in height and up to 3 pounds of weight.
Little penguins are bluish-grey colored with white plumage on the belly. Nickname "little blue penguin" refers to the plumage on the head and back.
Little penguins have dark grey beak, stiff, paddle-shaped flippers and streamlined bodies.
Little penguins are excellent swimmers with maximum swimming speed of 6 miles per hour.They usually collect food in the shallow water, but occasionally dive to a depth of nearly 263 feet. Little penguins can stay less than 2 minutes under the water.
Little penguins eat krill, squids and small fish.
Unlike other penguins, little penguins parade at night when they return from the sea to their burrows on the coast.
Little penguin is not a migratory bird. It spends its entire life in the same area. 629 miles is the longest, ever recorded distance traveled by little penguin.
Little penguins have up to 9 different calls for communication with other penguins. Short, sharp barking sounds are usually produced when little penguins are out at sea, while snorting yelps can be heard when there is danger.
Little penguins are social animals that live in large colonies.
Natural enemies of little penguins are seals, sharks, rats, weasels, foxes, sea eagles, large gulls and snakes.
Little penguins can survive 7 years in the wild and up to 26 years in a zoo or nature center.