This is a list of Sphenisciformes species by global population. While numbers are estimates, they have been made by the experts in their fields.
Sphenisciformes
Penguins (order Sphenisciformes , family Spheniscidae ) are a group of aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is found north of the Equator. Highly adapt ...
(from the Latin for ''"wedge-shaped"'') is the taxonomic order to which the penguins belong.
BirdLife International
BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...
has assessed 18 species. 16 (89% of total species) have had their population estimated: those missing are the
king
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
and
little penguin
The little penguin (''Eudyptula minor'') is a species of penguin from New Zealand. They are commonly known as little blue penguins or blue penguins owing to their slate-blue plumage and are also known by their Māori name .
The Australian lit ...
s, both of which have been assessed as being of
least concern
A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...
.
A variety of methods are used for counting penguins, and April 2012 saw their first
census from space, when imagery from
Ikonos,
QuickBird-2, and
WorldView-2
''WorldView-2'' (WV 2) is a commercial Earth observation satellite owned by DigitalGlobe. ''WorldView-2'' provides commercially available panchromatic imagery of resolution, and eight-band multispectral imagery with resolution.
It was launch ...
satellites were used to count
Antarctica
Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...
n
emperors
An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother (empr ...
.
This is a similar technique to that used by the
UNHCR
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integrati ...
to count humans in
Somalia
Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...
.
Most maritime surveys use
strip transect and
distance sampling to measure density; this is then extrapolated over the animal's range.
The
Galapagos has been counted annually since 1961 by the
Galápagos National Park Service. By land and sea, they carry out a full census in ten areas and partial census in four. The 2012 observation of 721 birds showed that levels have remained the same over recent years, and the current full estimate need not be changed.
For more information on how these estimates were ascertained, see Wikipedia's articles on
population biology
The term population biology has been used with different meanings.
In 1971 Edward O. Wilson ''et al''. used the term in the sense of applying mathematical models to population genetics, community ecology, and population dynamics. Alan Hastings ...
and
population ecology
Population ecology is a sub-field of ecology that deals with the dynamics of species populations and how these populations interact with the environment, such as birth and death rates, and by immigration and emigration.
The discipline is import ...
.
Species that can no longer be included in a list of this nature include the
Waitaha penguin
The Waitaha penguin (''Megadyptes waitaha'') is an extinct species of New Zealand penguin described in 2009.
Taxonomy
The new species was discovered by University of Otago and University of Adelaide scientists comparing the foot bones of 500 ...
, the last of which is believed to have perished between 1300 and 1500 AD (soon after the
Polynesian arrival to New Zealand), and the
Chatham penguin
The Chatham penguin (''Eudyptes warhami''), also known as the Chatham crested penguin, Chatham Islands penguin, or Warham's penguin, is an extinct species of crested penguin previously endemic to the Chatham Islands of New Zealand. It is known o ...
, which is only known through
subfossils but may have been kept in captivity sometime between 1867 and 1872.
[A.J.D. Tennyson and P.R. Millener (1994)]
Bird extinctions and fossil bones from Mangere Island, Chatham Islands
''Notornis'' (Supplement) 41, 165–178. Adélies and emperors nest on Antarctica and feed on broken pack ice;
global warming
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
's effect on the latter may affect their numbers, and the
chinstrap
Chinstrap may refer to:
* Chinstrap, a strap fixed to a helmet or other headgear which passes beneath the chin and holds the headgear in place
* Chinstrap penguin, a species of penguin with markings resembling a chinstrap
*Chinstrap beard, a type ...
s and
gentoos, which both feed in open waters, have been making inroads into the Adélie and emperors' formerly ice-packed range. The gentoos have thus seen 7500% population growth since 1974, and the chinstraps 2700%.
Species by global population
See also
*
Lists of birds by population
This is a list of bird species by global population, divided by bird classification. While numbers are estimates, they have been made by the experts in their fields. For more information on how these estimates were ascertained, see Wikipedia's ar ...
*
Lists of organisms by population
This is a collection of lists of organisms by their population. While most of the numbers are estimates, they have been made by the experts in their fields. Species population is a science falling under the purview of population ecology and biog ...
References
{{Birds by population
Birds
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...
Sphenisciformes
Penguins (order Sphenisciformes , family Spheniscidae ) are a group of aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is found north of the Equator. Highly adapt ...