Few studies have analyzed the gastrointestinal (GI) microbiota of any penguin species. Two pioneering studies from the same research group analyzed the GI microbiota of the Little Penguin (LP) (Eudyptula minor). One study utilized wild LPs and the other utilized captive LPs in a nature park. The purpose of this study is to compare the GI microbiomes of captive and wild LPs, using the data from these two previous studies. Sequences were downloaded from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Sequence Read Archive (SRA). Sequence quality control and analysis was completed using the MOTHUR bioinformatics program. Unique sequences and Operational Taxonomic Units were classified, and the wild and captive sequences were compared. Results of the study were inconclusive due to duplicated data uploaded to both studies in the NCBI SRA by the original research group. It was impossible to determine whether this data originated from wild or captive LPs. In addition, a heavy bias towards captivity and juvenile data caused data skewing of captive penguin averages
