🐧Emperor penguin
The emperor penguin is the tallest and heaviest of all living penguin species and lives exclusively in Antarctica. The male and female are similar in plumage and size, reaching 100 cm (39 in) in length and weighing from 22 to 45 kg. Feathers of the head and back are black and sharply delineated from the white belly, pale-yellow breast and bright-yellow ear patches.
Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
IUCN Red List assessment, 2020.
- Body mass
- 34 kg
- Body length
- 1.15 m
- Shoulder height
- not recorded
- Top speed
- not recorded
- Bite force
- not recorded
- Maximum lifespan
- not recorded
Everything we know about the Emperor penguin
Typical adult figures. Where a value is an estimate rather than a measurement, it says so.
Body mass34 kgrecord 33 kg · SeaLifeBaseAVONETOther figures ↓Hide ↑
Record: largest individual on record
Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0
Figures vary
- 30 kgAnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: low
Body length1.15 mmaximum recorded, total lengthSeaLifeBaseDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: SeaLifeBase · v25.04 · CC BY-NC 4.0
Standing height1.17 m1.01–1.32 m · typical rangenot statedDetails ↓Hide ↑
"Emperor penguins are the largest sea birds in the Antarctic, standing 101 to 132 cm tall." Range-only; value is the midpoint. ADW's own length field carries the same 101-132 cm, so the standing-height wording is ADW's; Antarctic agency pages (AAD, BAS) checked and state weight but no height.
Source: Wilber 2020, Animal Diversity Web account: Aptenodytes forsteri, https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Aptenodytes_forsteri/ · see citation
Tail length0.12 mAVONETDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0
Wing length0.18 mAVONETDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0
Beak length0.09 mAVONETDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0
Tarsus length0.05 mAVONETDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0
Trophic levelCarnivoreAVONETDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0
HabitatMarineAVONETDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0
LifestyleAquaticAVONETDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0
Volume l34 LaverageDetails ↓Hide ↑
Body mass at ~1.0 kg/L, the density of vertebrate tissue.
average = a mean across sexes or species in a group.
Not recorded for Emperor penguin yet: shoulder height, top speed, bite force, maximum lifespan.
Family tree
- kingdomAnimalia
- ›phylumChordata
- ›classAves
- ›orderSphenisciformes
- ›familySpheniscidae
- ›genusAptenodytes
- ›speciesAptenodytes forsteri
- classBirds · Aves
- orderPenguins · Sphenisciformes
- familySpheniscidae
- genusAptenodytes
All 12 branches ↓Fewer branches ↑
- kingdomMetazoa
- phylumChordata
- subphylumCraniata
- subphylumVertebrata
- superclassGnathostomata
- superclassSarcopterygii
- superclassTetrapoda
- orderSauria
- classBirds · Aves
- orderPenguins · Sphenisciformes
- familySpheniscidae
- genusAptenodytes
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