Current view: Data table and detailed info
Taxonomic source(s)
Christidis, L. and Boles, W.E. 2008. Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds. CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Australia.
del Hoyo, J., Collar, N.J., Christie, D.A., Elliott, A. and Fishpool, L.D.C. 2014. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 1: Non-passerines. Lynx Edicions BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK.
SACC. 2005 and updates. A classification of the bird species of South America. Available at: https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm.
Turbott, E.G. 1990. Checklist of the Birds of New Zealand. Ornithological Society of New Zealand, Wellington.
IUCN Red List criteria met and history
Red List criteria met
Red List history
| Migratory status |
full migrant |
Forest dependency |
does not normally occur in forest |
| Land-mass type |
|
Average mass |
- |
Population justification:
The total global population was previously estimated at c.2.37 million breeding pairs (range 1.83-2.88 million pairs), equating to 4.74 million breeding individuals, based on survey data collated up to the mid-1990s (Woehler 1993, Woehler and Croxall 1997). More recently, Lynch and La Rue (2014) estimated the global breeding population to be 3.79 million pairs (range 3.52-4.10 million pairs) spread amongst 190-250 colonies (depending on the definition of a colony), equating to 7.58 million breeding individuals, based largely on satellite imagery of breeding colonies obtained between 2006 and 2011. These estimates do not include mature individuals that have skipped breeding in a season, which have been estimated to comprise up to 20% of the total breeding-age population (Southwell et al. 2017), nor pre-breeding individuals (the species not beginning to breed until an average of 4-5 years; Ainley 2002). The global population of breeding-aged individuals is thus likely to be around 10 million mature individuals; the total population including both mature and pre-breeding birds is around 14-16 million individuals (Southwell et al. 2017).
Trend justification: Lynch and LaRue (2014) reported that the global population had increased between the times of the two global estimates in the mid-1990s and 2014 (Woehler 1993, Woehler and Croxall 1997, Lynch and La Rue 2014), with 27% of the difference accounted for by increasing abundance at known colonies and 32% of the difference accounted for by colonies that had not previously been surveyed. Satellite imagery broadened the scope of assessing colony population size. Recent direct surveys in East Antarctica (Southwell et al. 2015a, b) and the Ross Sea (Lyver et al. 2014) have estimated a greater increase in these regions (e.g. average rate of increase in East Antarctica of 1.9% (1.3%-2.4%) per year over 30 years), indicating that the increase in the global population is probably greater than the 27%. The increase in numbers in the Ross Sea accelerated after about 2000 (Lyver et al. 2014).
Recent population increases were found in those regions where most of the world population breeds, including East Antarctica and Victoria Land in the Ross Sea (Lyver et al. 2014, Southwell et al. 2015a,b); the species has also been increasing on the southern Antarctic Peninsula south of 66°S (Sailley et al. 2013). In the northern Peninsula region, evidence indicates that some populations are beginning to stabilize after decades of significant decrease (Fountain et al. 2016); population decreases had previously occurred in parts of the northern Peninsula region (Fraser et al. 1992) and in the South Orkney Islands (Dunn et al. 2016). Modelling exercises now replicate some of the strongest signals in population change (Che-Castaldo et al. 2017). The net change in world population has been positive (Lynch and LaRue 2014). It should be noted that modelled projections in response to climate change, with associated inherent uncertainty, suggest that populations could decrease north of 70°S after the mid-21st century (Ainley et al. 2010, see also Cimino et al. 2016a), and such a change will necessitate a future re-examination of the Adélie Penguin’s status.
Country/territory distribution
Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBA)
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Adelie Penguin Pygoscelis adeliae. Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/adelie-penguin-pygoscelis-adeliae on 28/11/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 28/11/2024.
