Southern Rockhopper Penguin
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 Adult Rockhopper in a Falklands Islands rookery
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| Eudyptes chrysocome Forster, 1781 |
The Southern Rockhopper Penguin or just Rockhopper Penguin, Eudyptes chrysocome, is a species of penguin closely related to the Macaroni Penguin.
This is the smallest yellow-crested, black-and-white penguin, reaching a length of 55cm. It has slate-grey upperparts and a straight, bright yellow eyebrow ending in long yellowish plumes projecting sideways behind a red eye. It breeds in colonies, from sea-level to cliff-tops, and sometimes inland. It feeds on krill, squid, octopus, fish, molluscs, plankton, cuttlefish and crustaceans.
The Rockhopper Penguins have a global population of about 3.5 million pairs. The nominate subspecies chrysocome breeds on the Falkland Islands, and on islands off Argentina and southern Chile. The subspecies moseleyi, possibly a distinct species (as Northern Rockhopper Penguin, E. moseleyi) breeds on islands in Tristan da Cunha, and Amsterdam and St Paul Islands. The subspecies filholi breeds on the Prince Edward Islands, the Crozet Islands, the Kerguelen Islands, Heard Island, Macquarie Island, and Campbell, New Zealand and Antipodes Islands.
The status of this species is vulnerable due to a fall of 24% in its population in the last thirty years.
As their name suggests, they spend their time hopping over rocks, and the explorers who discovered them were amused to see the penguins jumping all over the place.[citation needed]
The scientific name for the Rockhopper penguin is sometimes given as Eudyptes crestatus.
[edit] Trivia
Rockhopper is the name of a pirate penguin on the on the online game Club Penguin.
The characters Ivan and Tobi from the Konami video game Sexy Parodius are actually a pair of Rockhoppers.
The character Rocco in the Don Bluth film "The Pebble and the Penguin," is a Rockhopper.
The cover of the Fleetwood Mac album Penguin features a Rockhopper. The penguin subsequently became Fleetwood Mac's mascot.
Fidgel from the Big Idea Productions series 3-2-1 Penguins is a Rockhopper.
The character Lovelace voiced by Robin Williams in Happy Feet is a Rockhopper.
Rockhopper IV is the name of a spaceship in Alastair Reynolds's 2005 science fiction novel, Pushing Ice. The ship's logo is a penguin, genus unspecified.
[edit] References
- BirdLife International (2005). Eudyptes chrysocome. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 05 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is vulnerable
- Eudyptes chrysocome (TSN 559996). Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Accessed on 24 January 2006.
[edit] External links
