Happy Feet movie is an about the group of different penguin species dancing with joy with all related life and species contributing in the story. The Amigos are the group of five Adelie penguins. Ramon, Nestor, Raul, Lombardo, and Rinaldo are the five Amigos in the movie Happy Feet.
The Amigos play an important role in Happy Feet, where Ramon leads the five Adelies. Adelie penguins are one of the four true Antarctic species. In the Antarctic region along with Emperor penguins, Adelie penguins are widely spread. Adelies don’t live in any other regions apart from Antarctic continent.
In Happy Feet, Adelies is one of the happiest and energetic groups of penguin species. All the five Adelies are male penguins. There is an Emperor penguin chick who is a buddy of Adelie penguins in Happy Feet.
The Appearance of Adelie Penguins:
Adelie penguins are cool to recognize, and they are unique in appearance amongst other species of penguins. It gives a Tuxedo look with its black plumage from the throat to head and face covering the back of the body, till the tail. Adelie penguins reach tall to the height of 46 to 71 cm and weigh maximum to about 13 lb.
Adelie penguins have a white ring around each eye which is not in any other species of penguins. They have a long tail and short but thick bill. The beak has red parts which are covered by small plumages.
Young Adelie penguins do not have white rings around each eye. The flippers are black on the outside like any other species of penguins and partially pink and white on the inside. The webbed feet are pink in color.
Habitat:
Adelie penguins live in the Antarctic and other small islands that are surrounding the Antarctic continents. They live in the icy packed lands and move offshore in the surrounding during winter.
The largest colonies of Adelies are in Cape Adare, Heroina Island, Danger Islands, Cape Royds, Cape Crozier, Hope Bay, and Adelie Land. They also live in the surrounding Antarctic Islands like the South Sandwich Islands, South Orkney, and Shetland.
Characteristic of Adelie Penguins:
Adelie penguins build the stone nest, lay an egg and incubate the egg in the nest. During the time of hatching, female penguins leave the egg to the males and go to the ocean in search of food. Female penguins dive deeper and swim faster for the matter.
Once the female is back, the male penguin takes its turn to feed the family — the vocalization of the Adelie penguins depending on the conditions and period of the life. The vocalization sounds may be of a growl, grunt and a trumpet sound depending on the situation which the Adelies face.
During the nesting time, while collecting stones and protecting the territory, Adelie penguins become more aggressive. Adelies are one of the penguin species that form beautiful stone nests.
Diet:
Since Adelies are efficient swimmers, they can swim for long distance and find the prey without hardship. The diet of Adelie penguins includes krill, small fish and squid.
The dinner depends on the region where they live and also depends on the availability of their favorite food. Adelie penguins also eat small crabs occasionally, but their favorite food is usually krill that are small shrimp-like a marine animal.
Chicks:
Adelie penguins lay two eggs in a normal clutch. The chicks are brown until they molt and the brown plumages are soft than the newly grown plumage. Before the chicks can swim for hunting the prey, they are dependent on the parents to feed them, and they produce a loud call to parents, indicating that they are in need of food. Like other penguin species, Adelie penguins also fast during, molting, incubating and breeding season.
The chicks can hunt by their own after one year, which is after their completion of molting period. The chicks get sexual maturity around 4 or 5 years. Also, the young ones do not have the white ring around the eyes that the adult Adelie penguins have.
Population and Threat:
Adelie penguins are growing in population. Researchers say that there are around 4.5 million breeding pairs which are more in number than they expected. Even though they are growing in population, the threat faced by them is enormous due to global warming and human-caused threat.
Pollution and aircraft trips disturb the colonies and nests of Adelie penguins. Also, oil pollution caused by the ships in the ocean also affects the species.
Predators:
Apart from the human-made threats, Adelie penguins also suffer natural threat by the predators such as Leopard seals and Orcas. Skuas and petrels mostly threaten the eggs.
Conclusion:
In the Happy Feet movie, leopard seal also threatens the Amigos where the Amigos fool out the seal when it tries to prey them. Adelies are like children in the Antarctic penguin region. They move with grace and have a short neck like Emperor penguins that stay in a harsh icy land.
The long-tailed Amigos is one of the major alluring facts in the movie Happy Feet, and they are enthusiastic in the movie with a lot of dancing gestures which make them more adorable.
References:
http://mumblehappyfeet.wikia.com/wiki/The_Amigos
http://happyfeet.wikia.com/wiki/Amigos_(group)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad%C3%A9lie_penguin