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Information about Little Auk

Little Auk

Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Aves
Order:Charadriiformes
Family:Alcidae
Genus:Alle
Link, 1806
Species:A. alle
Binomial name
Alle alle
(Linnaeus, 1758)


The Little Auk, or Dovekie (Alle alle), is a small auk, the only member of the genus Alle. It breeds on islands in the high Arctic. There are two subspecies: A. a. alle breeds in Greenland, Iceland, Novaya Zemlya and Spitsbergen, and A. a. polaris on Franz Josef Land.

Their breeding habitat is coastal mountainsides, where they have huge colonies. They nest in crevices or beneath large rocks, usually laying just one egg. They move south in winter into northern areas of the north Atlantic. Late autumn storms may carry them south of their normal wintering areas, or into the North Sea.

Enlarge picture
Little Auk in winter plumage
This is the only Atlantic auk of its size, half the size of the Atlantic Puffin at 19-21 cm in length, with a 34-38 cm wingspan. Adult birds are black on the head, neck, back and wings with white underparts. The bill is very short and stubby. They have a small rounded black tail. The lower face and fore neck become white in winter.

The flight is direct, with fast whirring wing beats due to the short wings. These birds forage for food like other auks by swimming underwater. They mainly eat crustaceans especially copepods, but also other small invertebrates along with small fish. They collect in large swarms before leaving their breeding rocks to head out to sea for food as well as when they return.

Enlarge picture
Little Auks on Svalbard


Little Auks produce a variety of twitters and cackling calls at the breeding colonies, but are silent at sea.

Large numbers of Little Auks have been killed in several oil-spill incidents. Over-fishing has little effect, because their prey is mainly crustaceans, but climate changes (warming) in Southern Greenland and Iceland seems to be the reason for the decreasing populations there. The Glaucous Gull and the Arctic Fox are the main predators on Little Auks, and in some cases the Polar Bear has also been reported to feed on their eggs (Isaksen & Gavrilo 2000).

References

  • BirdLife International (2004). Alle alle. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
  • Harrison, P. (1983). Seabirds. Helm. ISBN 0-7470-1410-8
  • Isaksen, K. & Gavrilo, M. V. (2000). Little Auk Alle alle. pp. 131-136 in: Anker-Nilssen, T., Bakken, V., Strøm, H., Golovkin, A. N., Bianki, V. V. & Tatarinkova, I. P. (red.). The Status of Marine Birds Breeding in the Barents Sea Region. Norsk Polarinstitutt Rapportserie Nr. 113. Norwegian Polar Institute, Tromsø.
conservation status of a species is an indicator of the likelihood of that species continuing to survive either in the present day or the future. Many factors are taken into account when assessing the conservation status of a species: not simply the number remaining, but the
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Least Concern (LC) is an IUCN category assigned to extant species or lower taxa which have been evaluated but do not qualify for any other category. As such they do not qualify as threatened, nor Near Threatened, nor (prior to 2001) Conservation Dependent.
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Scientific classification or biological classification is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms. Scientific classification also can be called scientific taxonomy, but should be distinguished from folk taxonomy, which lacks scientific basis.
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Chordata
Bateson, 1885

Typical Classes

See below

Chordates (phylum Chordata) are a group of animals that includes the vertebrates, together with several closely related invertebrates.
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Aves
Linnaeus, 1758

Orders

About two dozen - see section below

Birds (class Aves) are bipedal, warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrate animals.
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Charadriiformes
Huxley, 1867

Families

Scolopacidae
Rostratulidae
Jacanidae
Thinocoridae
Pedionomidae
Laridae
Rhynchopidae
Sternidae
Alcidae
Stercorariidae
Glareolidae
Dromadidae
Turnicidae
Burhinidae
Chionididae
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AUK is a three-letter abbreviation with multiple meanings, as described below:
  • Audax UK, a cycling organisation
  • American University in Kosovo, part of the Rochester Institute of Technology
  • alt.usenet.

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Johann Heinrich Friedrich Link (February 2, 1767 - January 1, 1850) was a German naturalist and botanist.

Link was born at Hildesheim as a son of the minister August Heinrich Link (1738–1783), who taught him the love for nature through collection of 'natural objects'.
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binomial nomenclature is the formal system of naming species. The system is also called binominal nomenclature (particularly in zoological circles), binary nomenclature (particularly in botanical circles), or the binomial classification system.
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Carolus Linnaeus (Carl von Linné)

Carl von Linné, Alexander Roslin, 1775. Currently owned by and hanging at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
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8th century - 9th century - 10th century
850s  860s  870s  - 880s -  890s  900s  910s
885 886 887 - 888 - 889 890 891

:
Subjects:     Archaeology - Architecture -
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AUK is a three-letter abbreviation with multiple meanings, as described below:
  • Audax UK, a cycling organisation
  • American University in Kosovo, part of the Rochester Institute of Technology
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Arctic is the region around the Earth's North Pole, opposite the Antarctic region around the South Pole. In the northern hemisphere, the Arctic includes the Arctic Ocean (which overlies the North Pole) and parts of Canada, Greenland (a territory of Denmark), Russia, the United
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Anthem
Nunarput utoqqarsuanngoravit
Nuna asiilasooq


Capital
(and largest city) Nuuk (Godthåb)

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Anthem
Lofsöngur

Location of  Iceland

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Novaya Zemlya (Russian: Но́вая Земля́, lit. New Land; formerly known in English and still in Dutch as Nova Zembla
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Spitsbergen<nowiki />

Map of Svalbard, showing Spitsbergen in the West.

Geography <nowiki/>
Location Svalbard, Arctic Ocean
Coordinates Coordinates:
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Franz Josef Land, Franz Joseph Land, or Francis Joseph's Land (Russ. Земля Франца-Иосифа, Zemlya(or Semlia) Frantsa-Iosifa
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In most birds and reptiles, an egg (Latin ovum) is the zygote, resulting from fertilization of the ovum. To enable incubation the egg is usually kept within a favourable temperature range as it nourishes and protects the growing embryo.
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Bird migration refers to the regular seasonal journeys undertaken by many species of birds. Migrations include movements of varied distances made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather.
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Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions; with a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres (41.1 million square miles), it covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface.
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The North Sea is marginal, epeiric sea of the Atlantic Ocean on the European continental shelf between Norway and Denmark in the east, Scotland and England in the west, and Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and France in the south.
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F. arctica

Binomial name
Fratercula arctica
(Linnaeus, 1758)

The Atlantic Puffin (Fratercula arctica) is a seabird in the auk family.
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crustaceans (Crustacea) are a large group of arthropods, comprising approximately 52,000 described species [1], and are usually treated as a subphylum [2].
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Invertebrate is an English word that describes any animal without a spinal column. The group includes 97% of all animal species — all animals except those in the Chordate subphylum Vertebrata (fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds and mammals).
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L. hyperboreus

Binomial name
Larus hyperboreus
Gunnerus, 1767, northern Norway

The Glaucous Gull, Larus hyperboreus
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Alopex
Kaup, 1829

Species: A. lagopus

Binomial name
Alopex lagopus
(Linnaeus, 1758)

Arctic Fox range

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