****************************************************** ANIMAL POPULATIONS ****************************************************** *************** POPULATIONS *************** __________ QUESTION: What is the population of the various animals in Antarctica? ANSWER from Dr. Michael Castellini on February 6, 1995 This is a hard question since there really is no one who can count all those animals and have a reasonably good idea that the numbers are correct. However, one book that I have says that there are about 600,000 to 700,000 southern fur seals, 1000-5000 blue whales, 1000- 3000 humpback whales, over 80,000 fin whales, over 200,000 killer whales, 200,000 Ross seals, 30,000,000 crab eaters (the most numerous of the worlds seals), 800,000 Weddell seals, 250,000 Emperor penguins and millions of Adelies. __________ QUESTION: What are the populations of the seals, whales, and penguins that live in Antarctica? ANSWER: From Dr. Michael Castellini This is a very hard question. There are not many scientists in this field that deal with accurate counts of seals, penguins and whales in the Antarctic. This is a difficult field of study and involves trying to count all the animals of a coastline the size of North America. However, many textbooks on the Antarctic give general numbers for many of the species that you asked about: Emperor penguins: Probably about 250,000 Adelies, chinstraps, gentoo penguins, etc. Literally tens of millions. Southern elephant seals: about 600,000 Southern fur seals: Over 300,000 Crabeater seals: Over 30,000,000!!!! Blue whales: less than 5000 Killer whales: about 200,000 Weddell seals: about 500,000 ************************************* SPECIES ************************************* ******************** KINDS OF PENGUINS ******************** __________ QUESTION: How many different penguins are there in Antarctica? ANSWER from Dr. Michael Castellini on Feb. 7, 1995: Around the world, there are 17 species of penguins. They only live in the Southern Hemisphere, but they live everywhere from Africa, New Zealand, and the Galapagos Islands to the Antarctic. The real ice- loving penguins are only two: the Adelie and the Emperor. However, there are many that live in the sub-Antarctic regions like the chinstrap, gentoo and macaroni penguins. The emperor penguin is the biggest and can weigh almost 70 pounds. The smallest is the little blue penguin that lives in Australia and New Zealand and is much smaller than a chicken! I have seen 3 different species in New Zealand, 1 in Australia, 4 in the sub-Antarctic (the Falkland Islands) and 2 in the Antarctic. That adds up to about 10. I have seen many more in zoos and aquaria, but I don't count those. There are only 2 that live in the ice of the Antarctic--the Emperor and the Adelie. __________ QUESTION: How many types of penguins are in Antarctica? What are the names of the species of penguins? ANSWER from Polly Penhale on January 23, 1995: Several species of penguins live in the Antarctic: these include the Adelie penguin, the Gentoo penguin, the Chinstrap penguin and the Emperor penguin. There are also species found in the sub-Antarctic regions which sometimes appear in the Antarctic: these penguins, which tend to be found in warmer areas, include the Rockhopper penguin, the Macaroni penguin and the King penguin. ****************************** KINDS OF ANIMALS AND BIRDS ****************************** __________ QUESTION: What kind of animal life exists in Antarctica? ANSWER from Deane Rink On the actual continent itself, you only get very tiny invertebrates, like the nematodes that Diana Freckman talked about in our second program. You get other invertebrates called tardigrades and rotifers, and that's about it. This is because there is very little microscopic plant life on which animal life might feed. Flying over the continent you get a species of southern oceans sea gull known as the skua. Other bird life abounds, but only in the marine waters surrounding Antarctica: penguins of ten or twelve different types that occasionally come on land (or ice) and waddle around but who feed in the oceans; and seals, who similarly live and feed in the oceans and come up through ice cracks to sun themselves and rest. __________ QUESTION: What type of animals do you see? Are there any birds there that migrate to the United States? ANSWER from Dr. Michael Castellini on Feb. 5 1995 There are all kinds of animals in the Antarctic, but most of them live in the ocean or nearby on the shore. There are no land animals except for bacteria, lichen, small worms, etc. Of the kind that are easily seen, there are several species of seals and whales, several different kinds of penguins, flying birds that come in from the ocean, and of course, lots of fish, sea-stars, etc. None of these comes to the warm areas of the world, such as the U.S. Some seals do show up in New Zealand or Australia, but not too many! __________ QUESTION: What kind of animals do you see in Antarctica? Have you seen any sheathbill birds, and where do you see them? Have you seen any crab-eater seals, and where do they live? ANSWER from Michael Castellini in February, 1995: I have been able to see lots of different kinds of animals in the Antarctic. I have seen killer whales and minke whales and bottle nose whales. There have been quite a few different types of seals that I have seen including Weddell seals, leopard seals, crab-eater seals, fur seals and southern elephant seals. There have been so many different kinds of birds that I have lost track, but for sure I have seen Emperor penguins, Adelie, chinstrap, gentoo and macaroni penguins along with wandering albatross and giant petrels, and yes, lots and lots of sheathbills. The most birds I have seen in one spot was a macaroni penguin rookery in the Falkland Islands. On one island, there were almost 3 million birds! A lot of noise and very smelly! __________ QUESTION: Are there other animals in Antarctica other than penguins and seals? ANSWER from Dr. Michael Castellini on January 13, 1995 There are MANY kinds of animals in Antarctica, but the most obvious and biggest are the marine mammals and penguins. I have seen quite a lot of animals there including whales, seabirds, fish, squid, gulls, etc. There are no animals on most of the continent, since it is only ice. There are some worms, algae, etc., on the few sections of land that are not ice covered. So, almost all the life is associated with the ocean surrounding the continent and very little terrestrial life.