Rockhopper Penguins Decline

Posted by Rosemary Drisdelle Jan 7, 2007

Rockhopper Penguins, are in such precipitous decline that some experts consider them globally threatened. In the Falkland Islands, where hundreds of thousands of Rockhopper Penguins breed each year, the population has dropped by 30 percent in five years. This is a large drop, but the picture becomes even darker when you realize that the population is thought to have dropped by over 80 percent since the 1930s. Are we going to lose the charming and fascinating Rockhopper Penguin? (Lovelace, the colorful oracle penguin in the movie Happy Feet, is a Rockhopper Penguin.)

Scientists aren’t entirely sure what’s causing the decline of the Rockhopper Penguin, but it is probably a combination of factors:

• warmer waters and a resulting decrease in available food
• large scale commercial fishing in waters where the penguins must also find food
• "red tides" caused by toxic algal blooms

Related content:

A Gentoo Penguin’s Life Cycle

How Do Penguins Keep Warm?

Penguin Webcam

Sources:

Johnston, Ian. “Unhappy Feat: Biologists Baffled as Millions of Penguins Vanish.” The Scotsman Dec 23, 2006