What Are The Only Land Animals In Antartica

Antarctica's wildlife is diverse and unique. Information technology is the but continent on Globe which has no terrestrial mammals, simply is home to a range of marine wildlife and birds, including penguins! The virtually common birds in Antarctica are penguins. Information technology is home to xviii unlike species, including the Emperor Penguin.

Penguins playing on an ice floe in the waters surrounding Antarctica — Penguins on an ice floe. Photograph credit: Belinda Vause

Antarctica's Wildlife and its Food Spider web

The Antarctic nutrient web is much shorter than nearly. Here in Antarctica in that location are only four main trophic levels shown in the figure below.

Antarctica's Food web — Simplified Illustration of Antarctica'southward Nutrient Chain

The Emperor Penguin

The Emperor Penguin is the largest of all penguin species, they tin can exist up to 130cm tall, and on average weighs 23kg as an developed.

Emperor penguins in Antarctica — Emperor penguins. By Ian Duffy

Where do Emperor Penguins Live?

Emperor penguins, like all penguins in Antarctica, live in colonies dotted around the coastline. Emperor penguins are unique in having colonies on body of water ice. Ocean ice is frozen sea water which fringes the Antarctic continent. In the winter, the sea water ice extent expands. In the summer, it shrinks equally the bounding main ice melts. By the time the chicks are ready to fledge, the bounding main ice border is close to the colony, so the young penguins don't have to travel far to get their nutrient.

There are so many penguin colonies around Antarctica that scientists are not able to count them when they visit. Instead, they use satellite data, which takes images from space. They are able to see locations of penguin colonies because of a cherry-red-brown marker on the ice which can exist seen from space. This is known as penguin guano (penguin poo) – yep, you have read that correct, penguin poo! Their poo is this distinctive colour considering of the food they eat. Penguins live on a diet of fish, squid and krill. And it is krill which causes a penguins poo to exist the distinct reddish-brown colour.

Krill is not only eaten past merely penguins, information technology is a very of import food source for many other species in Antarctica's wildlife.

Screenshot of Sentinelhub Playground showing penguin poo on the ice

Krill

The producer in Antarctica are tiny organisms, known as phytoplankton. These organisms get their energy from the sunlight. Krill is so the main consumer of the phytoplankton, which is eaten by many other organisms such as penguins, birds, or fifty-fifty ginormous elephant seals! Because there are so many different organisms feeding from the krill, at that place needs to be lots and lots of krill bachelor, specially as they are only ii inches long!

In the video below, lookout Dr Bethan Davies (glaciologist) and Dr Huw Griffiths (marine biologist) hash out krill and their important part in Antarctic food webs.

Orca

At the top of the food chain, in that location are Orcas, often known as Killer Whales. These are the biggest carnivores on Earth, reaching almost 10m in length! They can be establish swimming all around the Earth'southward oceans, simply in detail in the Antarctic ocean around Antarctica.

Equally you can see from the food chain above, their diet mainly consists of seals as they take a high amount of fatty which can keep a hungry whale going in the year-round freezing temperatures. Not all of their meals are equally large as a seal, a lot of the fourth dimension Orcas consume unlike fish species.

Orcas pond in a pod. Paradigm courtesy of Mike Doherty. BAS

Seals

At that place are many different seals in Antarctica. They have thick cute fur coats and blubber, making them supremely adjusted to the common cold. At that place are half dozen species in Antarctica: Antarctic Fur Seals, Leopard Seals, Ross Seals, Southern Elephant seals, Crabeater Seals and Weddell Seals.

Seals eat fish, krill, squid, and leopard seals will even eat penguins or other seals.

The leopard seal: a fearsome predator. Paradigm courtesy of Mike Doherty. BAS

The Fur Seal has ears, and is actually a sealion! It tin stand up taller and 'walk' on its flippers, dissimilar the other 'truthful' seals.

fur-seal_cape-lachmann — A fur seal, seen on Cape Lachman, James Ross Island, northern Antarctic Peninsula, February 2011, Photo credit: Bethan Davies

Seals spend much of their fourth dimension on or under the sea ice, and catch most of their food under water. On country, they are slow and akward, but they are wonderful and elegant swimmers.

The largest seals are Elephant Seals; male person elephant seals can weigh up to 5000 kg!