Little Blues

Last week the penguin trustees came to school and taught us about our native Penguins on the west coast and then we did our writing about our Little Blue Penguin.  Here is my writing.

Little Blue Penguins

Little blue penguins live on the coastline of New Zealand but they need your help to survive. The little blues are being killed by dogs, cats, cars and us humans. Their size is 30cm tall so the are very easy to hit with your car. The little blue penguins are endangered and they are also the smallest penguin in the whole entire world.

looks

Little blue penguins have pink feet but  they go bright pink when they are embarrassed. They also have waterproof feathers so they don’t sink when they are in the water. The oil gland in their tails gives them wax to waterproof their feathers.

Special features of the little blues are 

they have light blue on their backs so when a bird looks down it can’t be seen, and white on their bellies so when a shark looks up they blend in with the sky.

They have excellent vision with bright blue eyes. Each eye has two eyelids. One is clear (called a nictitating membrane) and closes over their eyes so when they are under water it works like goggles. And when on the land it works like a windscreen wiper to brush out sand.

The nostrils of the little blues are called nares. When they drink sea water its very salty. So they can spit out the salt from their nares.

Food

Little blues eat fish, squid, sardines and shrimp. They swim 15-75kms for food. there feet helps guide them to swim. The little blue penguins can hold their breath for 124 secs to get their food.

Predators

Little blues predators are dogs, cats, cars, killer whales, sharks, the great white shark, stoats and even us humans are killing them and scaring them to death and that's making them endangered.

If you want to find out more go to penguins world. And remember that next time you see a little blue make sure that you are out of their environment and KEEP Them SAFE.