ZooChat Challenge (Global) 2013

Based on the UK challenges, i have decided to do a similar challenge for Zoochatters around the globe! Credits go to Shorts!

2013 challenge is for PENGUINS!
From Emperor to Little Blue, there are 19 species of penguin.
They are housed in all continents, even if some in a smaller quantity.

The rules are basically the same as the UK ones:

I´ll repeat one more time, all credits to Shorts.

 

This should be an interesting one, I should get a decent number of Penguins to be fair. Edinburgh, Blackpool, Chester!

 

I think if everyone find it ok, they can count, but i would prefer not.

Still, It may count as tie braker!

 

How many penguin species are there in zoos? Does anybody have a list?

 

That's what I was thinking. As far as I know, most species aren't found in captivity.

~Thylo

 

King, Emperor, Adelie, Chinstrap, Gentoo, Little Blue, Magellanic, Humboldt, African, Macaroni, Easter, Western and Northern Rockhopper Penguin, Fiordland Crested, White Flippered and Yellow-eyed are kept in captivity. More can be kept aswell.

 

Where exactly are White-Flippered and Yellow-Eyed Penguins kept in captivity?

~Thylo

 

New Zealand. Maybe Australia too.

 

At the end of the year who decides 2014's challenge? The winner?

~Thylo

 

Sure! The people decide the rules and the winners if needed.

 

So you're counting subspecies as well? Incidentally, there's no Western Rockhopper - it's Southern.



Hix

 

I heard that the Rockhoppers had been split into two species, the western apparently is not at this stage recognised as a distinct species (although it has been suggested by a few).



Hix

 

I read an article that said that these were the species of rockhoppers and that they were all kept in captivity. My mistake then, sorry.

 

Whether there are 2 or 3 rockhopper species is very much up for debate and there are biologists in both camps. You can present valid arguments for both treatments, just like you can present arguments for treating Snares as a race of Fiordland and royal as a race of macaroni instead of the usual treatments as separate species. In contrast, white-flippered looks like it is out for good unless people want to split the little penguin into many species. The deepest genetic split in the little penguin is between a primarily Australian population vs. the population of most of New Zealand ("most" because Omaru/Otago are in the Australian clade despite being locations in New Zealand).

I doubt there are any yellow-eyed in captivity and I'm not aware of any white-flippered either, but I don't know much about the New Zealand zoos despite visiting the island nation some years ago (it was primarily a wild nature watching trip). I've seen Fiordland at Taronga Zoo and I've seen the remaining species that are kept in zoos/aquaria at several places. However, if eastern rockhopper is treated as its own species I'm not sure if I have seen it -- I only started looking for the specific rockhopper taxa relatively recently. There are none in Europe. If there any pure eastern rockhopper in USA or Japan I might have seen them there without realizing it at the time. There are none listed among ISIS registered zoos (if that is to be trusted), but most Japanese institutions aren't members.

 

Well since no one has posted yet I was planning on waiting until right before midnight tomorrow but to be fair to our friends on the other side of the world, I'm going to post my results now. The ones in bold are lifeticks that I got this year. In no particular order:
-Magellanic Penguin (Bronx Zoo/Cincinnati Zoo)
-African Penguin (Cincinnati Zoo/New York Aquarium)
-King Penguin (Newport Aquarium/Cincinnati Zoo)
-Southern Rockhopper Penguin (Cincinnati Zoo)
-Antarctic Gentoo Penguin (Newport Aquarium)
-Macaronii Penguin (Newport Aquarium)
-Little Blue Penguin (Cincinnati Zoo)

Huh, thought I had more. The only other two species near me that I didn't get are Humboldt Penguin at the Roger Williams Park Zoo and Chinstrap Penguin at the Central Park Zoo.

~Thylo