ANTARCTIC
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Wildlife In Antarctica

Most of Antarctica’s wildlife consists of Penguins, Seals, some Fish, Whales and other Birds. There are 17 species currently living in Antarctica. Among these species are the Adelie, African, Chinstrap, Emperor, Erect Crested, Fairy, Fjordland Crested, Galapagos, Gentoo, Humboldt, King, Macaroni, Magellanic, Rockhopper, Royal, Snares Island, and the Yellow Eyed penguins. Of these 17 different penguins, only four of them actually breed in Antarctica. Those would be the the Adelie, the Emperor, the Chinstrap and the Gentoo penguins. Most other species are found within the subantarctic regions which includes many coastal islands. Natural enemies of the penguin include seals, Killer whales, and, in the case of young chicks and eggs, several species of seabirds. Healthy adult penguins have no predators on land, so they have no natural fear of humans. But, they don’t like to be directly approached. They are very curious animals, so they will sometimes come quite close to a quiet observer.

           



There are six species of seals found on Antarctica, the Crabeater, the Fur, the Leopard, the Ross, the Southern Elephant, and the Weddell seals. All seals feed at sea using sonar echolocation and the enhanced sight of their large eyes. Diets vary but generally consist of krill (a key species in the Antarctic ecosystem), fish squid and penguins. All seals, unlike whales, breed on land. Breeding sites are found primarily on shelf ice and pack ice surrounding the Antarctic continent or on coastal shores of the more northerly islands.

There are eight different types of birds that visit Antarctica, the Albatrosses, the Cormorants, the Fulmars, the Gulls, the Petrels, the Sheathbills, the Skuas, and the Terns. Many of the birds of the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic are susceptible to environmental change. They tend to have low reproduction rates so that means low potential for population recovery. Impacts from human disturbance, like long-line fisheries, are a huge threat to the populations of certain albatross and petrel birds.

There are also eight different species of whales to inhabit Antarctica, the Blue, the Fin, the Humpback, the Minke, the Orca (Killer Whale), the Southern Right, the Sei, and the Sperm whales. There are two natural groups of whales, toothed and baleen. The toothed whales include the large sperm whales and other smaller dolphins, which prey on fish and squid. Also in that family is the killer whale which preys on fish, penguins, seals and whales. The baleen whales, such as the blue whale and humpback, have plates of baleen instead of teeth, which they use to drain plankton from seawater. Both whales and seals of the Southern Ocean have been severely broken by man in the past, but are now protected and seals have had remarkable population increases. The slow recovery though of baleen whale populations has had an enormous effect on the Antarctic marine ecosystem.

The Antarctic fish fauna contains the unique ice fish (so called because of their translucent coloration). These fish are the only group of vertebrates which have no red blood pigment. The Mackerel Ice Fish are important prey for Antarctic Fur seals, and also the subject of a closely regulated commercial fishery. Antarctic ice fish living in close proximity to ice have evolved a glycoprotein antifreeze in their body fluids to prevent freezing.

Krill are shrimp-like marine invertebrate animals near the bottom of the food chain. They live in all oceans of the world and are an important food source for baleen whales, mantas, whale sharks, crabeater seals and other seals, and a few seabird species that feed almost exclusively on them. The name krill comes from the Norwegian word krill meaning "young fry of fish".

In the Southern Ocean, the Antarctic Krill make up a biomass of hundreds of millions of tons, similar to the entire human consumption of animal protein. Over half of this biomass is eaten by whales, seals, penguins, squid and fish each year, and replaced by growth and reproduction. Most of the species display large daily vertical migrations making a significant amount of biomass available as food for predators near the surface at night and in deeper waters during the day.