Southern Rockhopper Penguin
Eudyptes chrysocome
A small penguin with yellow eyebrows, red eyes and a habit of hopping up cliffs.
Rockhoppers are the smallest of the crested penguins, and the crest is hard to miss: thin yellow eyebrows ending in yellow plumes, right above bright red eyes. They get their name from the way they climb steep, rocky shores — by hopping, with both feet together.
On the conservation status
Listed as Vulnerable. Numbers fell by about a third between 1971 and 2007, mostly in the Falkland Islands, and climate change is thought to be a big part of why.
- Height
- About 48 cm
- Weight
- 2–3.8 kg
- Diet
- Krill and other crustaceans, squid, fish
- Dive depth
- Usually 20–30 m; record 113 m
- Incubation
- 32–34 days
- Range
- Islands around the Southern Ocean
The good stuff.
Named for hopping
Rockhoppers get up steep, rocky cliffs by hopping, with both feet together.
Two eggs, one chick
Females lay two eggs four or five days apart in November. The second egg is bigger, and usually only its chick survives.
The Falklands stronghold
In 2010 the Falkland Islands had about 319,000 breeding pairs — more than a third of all southern rockhoppers.
Hard times in the Falklands
In 1986 there was a mass starvation at the Falklands colonies, and between 2000 and 2005 numbers there dropped by another 88,000 pairs.
Picky about the temperature
Adults survive best when the ocean is at its usual cool temperature; when it turns unusually warm or cold, fewer make it. In warm years they also breed later and lay lighter eggs.
Gone for the winter
Rockhoppers leave the Falklands between April and September and don't come back until early October, when it's time to breed.
Wait, really?
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The males come back to the colony first, and the females arrive about a week later.
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It's the smallest of the crested penguins.
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Sea lions hunt them at sea, and skuas and caracaras take eggs and chicks at the colonies.
What it sounds like
Loud, harsh braying at the colony, especially when a pair meet.
We haven't found a recording we're allowed to share yet, so for now this one is a description.
Where you might see one
The Falkland Islands, where more than a third of them nest, between October and April.
The trouble
- Climate change shifting ocean temperatures and their food
- More competition and predation from growing fur seal and sea lion populations
- Oil pollution around Patagonia and the Falklands
One real thing
Rockhoppers need a healthy ocean full of krill and small fish. Supporting well-managed fisheries and cutting carbon both help.
More ways to help