2026-10-23

Deck archetype: Palmer penguins by species, sex and island

344 adult penguins of three species, measured at their nests on three islands near Palmer Station, Antarctica, 2007–2009, and 13,114 GBIF records of the same species nearby. The reference deck for the wri-html-decks skill.

By Carlo Broderick, NCEAS, UC Santa Barbara ·

NCEASNational Center for Ecological Analysis and SynthesisWRIWildfire Resilience Index

344 penguins, measured at their nests

Three species on three islands, over three breeding seasons (2007–2009).

152

Adélie penguins

68

Chinstrap penguins

124

Gentoo penguins

Adélie · 152 birdsChinstrap · 68 birdsGentoo · 124 birds

Gorman et al. 2014, via the palmerpenguins package (Horst et al. 2020)

Where they were measured, and who else saw them there

Satellite image: All three study sitesTorgersenDreamBiscoe
ShowAdélie recordsChinstrap recordsGentoo recordsPalmer study site

Each dot is one GBIF record of a penguin seen or collected there; each ring is where the Palmer birds were measured.

Open the interactive map

GBIF.org records fetched 2026-10-13 · site positions: SCAR gazetteer · Base map: Esri World Imagery (Esri, Maxar, Earthstar Geographics)

Only Adélie penguins were measured on all three islands

SpeciesAdélieChinstrapGentoo

Biscoe

44
0
124

Dream

56
68
0

Torgersen

52
0
0

Gorman et al. 2014, via the palmerpenguins package (Horst et al. 2020)

Males are heavier than females in every species

SexFemalesMales

Adélie

3,369 g n = 73
4,043 g n = 73

Chinstrap

3,527 g n = 34
3,939 g n = 34

Gentoo

4,680 g n = 58
5,485 g n = 61
The difference: The gap is 412–805 g, depending on the species.

Gorman et al. 2014, via the palmerpenguins package (Horst et al. 2020)

Flipper length separates the species more than the sexes

180 mm190 mm200 mm210 mm220 mmAdélieFemales188 mmMales192 mmChinstrapFemales192 mmMales200 mmGentooFemales213 mmMales222 mmAverage flipper length (mm), with 95% interval

Gorman et al. 2014, via the palmerpenguins package (Horst et al. 2020)

Gentoo are heavier than the other two species, with little overlap

Birds in each 250 g band of body mass (kg on the axis).

01020302.533.544.555.566.5AdélieChinstrapGentooBirds per 250 g

Gorman et al. 2014, via the palmerpenguins package (Horst et al. 2020)

Mixed together, longer bills look shallower; within each species they are deeper

12141618202230405060All birdsBill length (mm)Bill depth (mm)
ShowAdélieChinstrapGentooAll birds (fit)
Simpson's paradox. All birds: correlation -0.24. Within species: Adélie +0.39, Chinstrap +0.65, Gentoo +0.64.

Gorman et al. 2014, via the palmerpenguins package (Horst et al. 2020)

Three seasons of measurements, a century of sightings

190019251950197520002025Palmer study344 birds, 2007–2009Adélie records2,294 dated records, 1900–2026Chinstrap records2,881 dated records, 1898–2026Gentoo records7,892 dated records, 1898–2026

Gorman et al. 2014 · GBIF.org, fetched 2026-10-13

The averages in one table

SpeciesSexBirdsBody mass (g)Flipper (mm)Bill length (mm)Bill depth (mm)
Adéliefemale733,36918837.317.6
Adéliemale734,04319240.419.1
Chinstrapfemale343,52719246.617.6
Chinstrapmale343,93920051.119.3
Gentoofemale584,68021345.614.2
Gentoomale615,48522249.515.7

Gorman et al. 2014, via the palmerpenguins package (Horst et al. 2020)

How this deck was made

1

Get the data

Downloaded once, with the date

2

Compute

Every number from the files

3

Build

One idea per slide

4

Check

Pictures of every slide

5

Publish

Same link on every update

What it shows

Species, more than island, sets a penguin's size

Adélie averages differ by 21 g between islands; the species averages differ by 1,375 g.

Sources and how this deck was made

  • Gorman, K.B., Williams, T.D., Fraser, W.R. (2014) Ecological sexual dimorphism and environmental variability within a community of Antarctic penguins (genus Pygoscelis). PLoS ONE 9(3): e90081, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0090081. Palmer Station Antarctica LTER.
  • Data via Horst, A.M., Hill, A.P., Gorman, K.B. (2020) palmerpenguins, doi:10.5281/zenodo.3960218 (CC0 1.0).
  • GBIF.org occurrence records of the three species around Palmer Station (open licences only), fetched 2026-10-13: the query; each record's dataset and licence are kept with the data.
  • Site positions: SCAR Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica, Australian Antarctic Data Centre.
  • Base map: Esri World Imagery (Esri, Maxar, Earthstar Geographics).

Made by Carlo Broderick, NCEAS, UC Santa Barbara · Built by examples/penguin_deck_demo.py · 2026-10-23 10:32 PDT · WRI-Science on GitHub