Humboldt penguin

Humboldt penguin
At Islas Ballestas, Peru
Conservation status
Vulnerable  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Sphenisciformes
Family:	Spheniscidae
Genus:	Spheniscus
Species:	S. humboldti
Binomial name
Spheniscus humboldti Meyen, 1834
Distribution of the Humboldt penguin

The Humboldt penguin (Spheniscus humboldti) (also termed Chilean penguin, or patranca) is a South American penguin, that breeds in coastal Chile and Peru. Its nearest relatives are the African penguin, the Magellanic penguin and the Galápagos penguin. The penguin is named after the cold water current it swims in, which is itself named after Alexander von Humboldt, an explorer.

Humboldt penguins are medium-sized penguins, growing to 56–70 cm (22–28 in) long and a weight of 3.6-5.9 kg (8-13 lbs).^[2][3] They have a black head with a white border that runs from behind the eye, around the black ear-coverts and chin, and joins at the throat. They have blackish-grey upperparts and whitish underparts, with a black breast-band that extends down the flanks to the thigh. They have a fleshy-pink base to the bill. Juveniles have dark heads and no breast-band. They have spines on their tongue which they use to hold their prey.

Humboldt penguins nest on islands and rocky coasts, burrowing holes in guano and sometimes using scrapes or caves. In South America the Humboldt penguin is found only along the Pacific coast,^[4] and the range of the Humboldt penguin overlaps that of the Magellanic penguin on the central Chilean coast. It is vagrant in Ecuador and Colombia.^[5]

Conservation

Due to a declining population caused in part by over-fishing, climate change, and ocean acidification, the current status of the Humboldt penguin is threatened.^[6] Historically it was the victim of guano over-exploitation. Penguins are also declining in numbers due to habitat destruction including by invasive species. The current population is estimated at between 3,300 and 12,000. In August 2010 the Humboldt penguin of Chile and Peru, was granted protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.^[6]

Raising of young

In 2009 at a zoo in Bremerhaven, Germany, two adult male Humboldt penguins adopted an egg that had been abandoned by its biological parents. After the egg hatched, the two male penguins raised, protected, cared for, and fed the chick in the same manner that regular penguin couples raise their own biological offspring. A further example of this kind of behavior came in 2014, when Jumbs and Hurricane, 2 Humboldt Penguins at Wingham Wildlife Park became the center of international media attention as 2 male penguins who had pair bonded a number of years earlier and then successfully hatched and reared an egg given to them as surrogate parents after the mother abandoned it half way through incubation.^[7]

Escape from Tokyo Zoo

One of the 135 Humboldt penguins from Tokyo Sea Life Park (Kasai Rinkai Suizokuen) thrived in Tokyo Bay for 82 days after apparently scaling the 13 feet high wall and through the fence into the bay.^[8] The penguin, known only by its number (#337), was recaptured by the zoo keepers in late May 2012.^[9]

Gallery

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  Upper body

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  Humboldt penguin at Newquay Zoo

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  St Louis Zoo

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  A pair "kissing" at Cotswold Wildlife Park

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  Swimming underwater

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  Back

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  At Dublin Zoo

• Play media

  Humboldt penguin underwater at the Bremerhaven Zoo

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  Humboldt penguin during moult at the Cornish Seal Sanctuary

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Spheniscus humboldti.

• BirdLife species factsheet
• Humboldt penguins at Marwell