The erect-crested penguin (''Eudyptes sclateri'') is a

penguin Penguins (order (biology), order List of Sphenisciformes by population, Sphenisciformes , family (biology), family Spheniscidae ) are a group of Water bird, aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: on ...

endemic to the

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

region and only breeds on the

Bounty Bounty or bounties commonly refers to: * Bounty (reward), an amount of money or other reward offered by an organization for a specific task done with a person or thing Bounty or bounties may also refer to: Geography * Bounty, Saskatchewan, a g ...

and

Antipodes Islands The Antipodes Islands ( Maōri: Moutere Mahue; "Abandoned island") are inhospitable and uninhabited volcanic islands in subantarctic waters to the south of – and territorially part of – New Zealand. The 21 km2 archipelago lies 860 ...

. It has black upper parts, white underparts and a yellow eye stripe and crest. It spends the winter at sea and little is known about its biology and breeding habits. Populations are believed to have declined during the last few decades of the twentieth century, and the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

has listed it as being "

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inva ...

Description

Breeding pair of Erect-crested penguins at their nest

This is a small-to-medium-sized, yellow-crested, black-and-white penguin, at and weighing . The male is slightly larger than the female and as in most crested penguins has a larger bill. It has bluish-black to jet black upper parts and white underparts, and a broad, bright yellow eyebrow-stripe which extends over the eye to form a short, erect crest. With a mean body mass in males of (sample size 22) and females of (sample size 22), the erect-crested penguin is the largest of the crested penguin species and as the fourth heaviest extant penguin, being nearly as heavy on average as the

gentoo penguin The gentoo penguin ( ) (''Pygoscelis papua'') is a penguin species (or possibly a species complex) in the genus ''Pygoscelis'', most closely related to the Adélie penguin (''P. adeliae'') and the chinstrap penguin (''P. antarcticus''). The ear ...

. Its biology is poorly studied and only little information about the species has emerged in the past decades. The only recent study conducted on the Antipodes Islands focused on aspects of the mate choice. Research on the species is hampered by logistics and restrictive permitting by the New Zealand

Department of Conservation An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the environment and/or natural resources. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of the Environment ...

. It presumably feeds on small fish,

krill Krill are small crustaceans of the order Euphausiacea, and are found in all the world's oceans. The name "krill" comes from the Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in n ...

and

squid True squid are molluscs with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight arms, and two tentacles in the superorder Decapodiformes, though many other molluscs within the broader Neocoleoidea are also called squid despite not strictly fitting t ...

like other crested penguin species. The binomial commemorates the British zoologist

Philip Lutley Sclater Philip Lutley Sclater (4 November 1829 – 27 June 1913) was an English lawyer and zoologist. In zoology, he was an expert ornithologist, and identified the main zoogeographic regions of the world. He was Secretary of the Zoological Society o ...

Distribution

Bounty Islands Sub-Antarctic New Zealand Panorama 1

Erect-crested penguins breed on the

and

. Previous records of small breeding populations have also been reported from Campbell Island and the

Auckland Islands The Auckland Islands (Māori: ''Motu Maha'' "Many islands" or ''Maungahuka'' "Snowy mountains") are an archipelago of New Zealand, lying south of the South Island. The main Auckland Island, occupying , is surrounded by smaller Adams Island, ...

; in the 1940s a breeding pair was documented on the

Otago Peninsula The Otago Peninsula ( mi, Muaūpoko) is a long, hilly indented finger of land that forms the easternmost part of Dunedin, New Zealand. Volcanic in origin, it forms one wall of the eroded valley that now forms Otago Harbour. The peninsula lies sou ...

on the New Zealand mainland. The species spends extended times at sea during the pre-moult period (February-March) as well as over the winter months (March-August). Individuals have been found as far away as the

Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; es, Islas Malvinas, link=no ) is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and about from Cape Dubouzet ...

and it is also a vagrant to Argentina, Antarctica and Australia. Erect-crested penguins nest in large colonies on rocky terrain. On the Antipodes Islands, the penguins breed in mono-specific colonies or sometimes sympatrically with Southern Rockhopper penguins. On the Bounty Islands, Erect-crested penguin breed in large mixed colonies with

Salvin's albatross Salvin's albatross (''Thalassarche salvini'') or Salvin's mollymawk, is a large seabird that breeds mainly on the Bounty Islands of New Zealand, with scant amounts on islands across the Southern Ocean. A medium-sized mollymawk, it was long consi ...

Status

Populations of this species are believed to have declined drastically since the 1940s. Population estimates from the late 1970s put the total numbers of Erect-crested penguins breeding on the Bounty and Antipodes Islands at 230,000 breeding pairs although the accuracy of these figures have recently been questioned. Nevertheless there is ample evidence for substantial population declines in the second half of the 20th century although these declines seem to have slowed in recent decades. The current population is estimated at 150,000 mature individuals and is being listed as an

endangered species An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inv ...

on the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...

; the erect-crested penguin is listed as endangered and granted protection under the U.S.

Endangered Species Act The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA or "The Act"; 16 U.S.C. § 1531 et seq.) is the primary law in the United States for protecting imperiled species. Designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of ec ...

.Five Penguins Win U.S. Endangered Species Act Protection
Turtle Island Restoration Network

References

External links

* State of Penguins: Erect-crested penguin �
Detailed and current species account of Erect-crested penguins ''(Eudyptes sclateri)''
* ARKive �
images and movies of the erect-crested penguin ''(Eudyptes sclateri)''

* ttp://www.pinguins.info www.pinguins.info information about all species of penguins
Penguin World: Erect-crested penguin
{{Taxonbar, from=Q838959

erect-crested penguin The erect-crested penguin (''Eudyptes sclateri'') is a penguin endemic to the New Zealand region and only breeds on the Bounty Islands, Bounty and Antipodes Islands. It has black upper parts, white underparts and a yellow eye stripe and crest. I ...

Birds of the Antipodes Islands Birds of the Campbell Islands