Palmer Penguins Explorer

Exploring penguin measurements across species and islands in Antarctica.

Learning Objectives

Visualize relationships between penguin body measurements
Compare species distributions across islands using plots and tables
Explore grouped summaries with interactive tabsets

Code

library(palmerpenguins)
library(ggplot2)
library(dplyr)
library(gt)

Overview

The Palmer Penguins dataset contains measurements for 344 penguins from three species observed on three islands in the Palmer Archipelago, Antarctica.

Meet the Species

Click a card to learn more about each species.

Adelie

Click to flip

Islands: All three

Avg mass: 3,701 g

Avg flipper: 190 mm

Diet: Krill

Chinstrap

Click to flip

Island: Dream

Avg mass: 3,733 g

Avg flipper: 196 mm

Diet: Krill

Gentoo

Click to flip

Island: Biscoe

Avg mass: 5,076 g

Avg flipper: 217 mm

Diet: Fish & krill

Scatter Plot

Code

ggplot(penguins, aes(x = flipper_length_mm, y = body_mass_g, color = species, shape = species)) +
  geom_point(size = 2.5, alpha = 0.7) +
  scale_color_manual(values = c("darkorange", "purple", "cyan4")) +
  labs(
    x = "Flipper Length (mm)",
    y = "Body Mass (g)",
    color = "Species",
    shape = "Species"
  ) +
  theme_minimal()

Figure 1: Flipper length vs. body mass by species

Summary Table

Code

penguins |>
  filter(!is.na(body_mass_g)) |>
  group_by(species) |>
  summarise(
    Count = n(),
    `Mean Body Mass (g)` = round(mean(body_mass_g), 0),
    `Mean Flipper Length (mm)` = round(mean(flipper_length_mm, na.rm = TRUE), 1),
    `Mean Bill Length (mm)` = round(mean(bill_length_mm, na.rm = TRUE), 1),
    `Mean Bill Depth (mm)` = round(mean(bill_depth_mm, na.rm = TRUE), 1)
  ) |>
  gt() |>
  tab_header(
    title = "Penguin Species Summary",
    subtitle = "Averages across all islands"
  ) |>
  cols_label(species = "Species") |>
  tab_source_note("Source: palmerpenguins R package")

Table 1

Species	Count	Mean Body Mass (g)	Mean Flipper Length (mm)	Mean Bill Length (mm)	Mean Bill Depth (mm)
Penguin Species Summary
Averages across all islands
Adelie	151	3701	190.0	38.8	18.3
Chinstrap	68	3733	195.8	48.8	18.4
Gentoo	123	5076	217.2	47.5	15.0
Source: palmerpenguins R package

Did You Know?

Swipe or use the arrows to browse penguin fun facts.

Deepest Divers

Gentoo penguins can dive to depths of over 200 meters and hold their breath for up to 7 minutes while hunting fish.

Speed Swimmers

Gentoos are the fastest underwater-swimming penguins, reaching speeds of up to 36 km/h (22 mph).

Pebble Proposals

Adelie penguins propose to their mates by offering a carefully chosen pebble. Fights can break out over the best stones.

Named for a Stripe

Chinstrap penguins get their name from the narrow black band running under their chin, like a helmet strap.

Extreme Commuters

Adelie penguins migrate up to 17,600 km (10,900 mi) each year, following the sun between breeding and feeding grounds.

Largest of the Three

Gentoo penguins are the largest species in this dataset, averaging over 5 kg — about 37% heavier than Adelie or Chinstrap.

Details by Island

Code

penguins |>
  filter(island == "Biscoe") |>
  ggplot(aes(x = species, y = body_mass_g, fill = species)) +
  geom_boxplot(alpha = 0.7, show.legend = FALSE) +
  scale_fill_manual(values = c("darkorange", "cyan4")) +
  labs(x = NULL, y = "Body Mass (g)") +
  theme_minimal()

Code

penguins |>
  filter(island == "Dream") |>
  ggplot(aes(x = species, y = body_mass_g, fill = species)) +
  geom_boxplot(alpha = 0.7, show.legend = FALSE) +
  scale_fill_manual(values = c("darkorange", "purple")) +
  labs(x = NULL, y = "Body Mass (g)") +
  theme_minimal()

Code

penguins |>
  filter(island == "Torgersen") |>
  ggplot(aes(x = species, y = body_mass_g, fill = species)) +
  geom_boxplot(alpha = 0.7, show.legend = FALSE) +
  scale_fill_manual(values = c("darkorange")) +
  labs(x = NULL, y = "Body Mass (g)") +
  theme_minimal()

About the Data

Data Collection Details

The Palmer Penguins dataset was collected by Dr. Kristen Gorman and the Palmer Station, Antarctica LTER, a member of the Long Term Ecological Research Network. The data were collected from 2007–2009 and include the following variables:

species: Adelie, Chinstrap, or Gentoo
island: Biscoe, Dream, or Torgersen
bill_length_mm: Length of the bill (mm)
bill_depth_mm: Depth of the bill (mm)
flipper_length_mm: Flipper length (mm)
body_mass_g: Body mass (g)
sex: Male or Female
year: Study year (2007, 2008, or 2009)

This dataset is commonly used as an alternative to the iris dataset for data exploration and visualization examples.

Missing Values

Code

penguins |>
  summarise(across(everything(), ~ sum(is.na(.)))) |>
  gt() |>
  tab_header(title = "Missing Values per Column")

species	island	bill_length_mm	bill_depth_mm	flipper_length_mm	body_mass_g	sex	year
Missing Values per Column
0	0	2	2	2	2	11	0