The royal penguin (''Eudyptes schlegeli'') is a species of penguin, which can be found on the sub-Antarctic

Macquarie Island Macquarie Island is an island in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, about halfway between New Zealand and Antarctica. Regionally part of Oceania and politically a part of Tasmania, Australia, since 1900, it became a Tasmanian State Reserve in 197 ...

and adjacent islands. 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 nat ...

(IUCN) classifies the royal penguin as near threatened. The scientific name commemorates the German zoologist

Hermann Schlegel Hermann Schlegel (10 June 1804 – 17 January 1884) was a German ornithologist, herpetologist and ichthyologist. Early life and education Schlegel was born at Altenburg, the son of a brassfounder. His father collected butterflies, which stimulate ...

Description

There is some controversy over whether royal penguins are a subspecies of

macaroni penguin The macaroni penguin (''Eudyptes chrysolophus'') is a species of penguin found from the Subantarctic to the Antarctic Peninsula. One of six species of crested penguin, it is very closely related to the royal penguin, and some authorities consid ...

s. Individuals of the two groups have been known to interbreed, though this is a relatively rare occurrence. Indeed, other penguins have been known to form mixed-species pairs in the wild. They inhabit the waters surrounding

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...

. Royals look very much like

s, but have a white face and chin instead of the macaronis' black visage. They are long and weigh . Males are larger than females. Royal penguins breed only on

and, like other penguins, spend much of their time at sea, where they are assumed to be

pelagic The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean, and can be further divided into regions by depth (as illustrated on the right). The word ''pelagic'' is derived . The pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or w ...

Breeding

Royal penguins nest on beaches or on bare areas on slopes covered with vegetation. Like most

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same enviro ...

s they are

colonial Colonial or The Colonial may refer to: * Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology) Architecture * American colonial architecture * French Colonial * Spanish Colonial architecture Automobiles * Colonial (1920 au ...

, nesting in scrapes on the ground up to a mile inland. The breeding season begins in September with laying following in October. Though royals typically lay two eggs, only one usually survives. The egg is kept warm by both parents for around 35 days. This is done by rotating 12-day shifts. After hatching, the male cares for the chick for 2 to 3 weeks, when the female returns with food for both of them. If the female is delayed or fails to return to the colony, the chick will die. At about one month old, the chicks begin to group together for warmth and safety. Both parents continue to feed chicks two to three times a day. When the chicks are just over two months old, they will have grown their adult plumage and will leave the colony to go to sea to feed on their own. It is common for the mother of multiple eggs to abandon their first egg only a day before their second egg arrives. Due to this abandonment the first egg has half the chance of hatching as the second egg that was kept. The causes of this behaviour are still unclear.

Diet

Royal penguins feed on

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 word ', meaning "small fry of fish", which is also often attributed to species of fish. Krill are consi ...

, small

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of ...

, and small amounts of squid. During breeding season, royal penguins will hunt in localized areas in conjunction to neighboring colonies. This implies a cohabitation with other colonies by sectoring off fishing areas for certain colonies, nearly eliminating resource competition.Hull, C. L. “Comparison of the Diets of Breeding Royal (Eudyptes Schlegeli) and Rockhopper (Eudyptes Chrysocome) Penguins on Macquarie Island over Three Years.” Journal of Zoology : Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London., vol. 247, no. 4, Published by the Society at Oxford University Press, 1999, pp. 507–29, doi:10.1111/j.1469-7998.1999.tb01013.x.

Threats

Royal penguins as a species are classified as least concern by the IUCN, with high risk of endangerment in the wild. Historically they were hunted for their oil; between 1870 and 1919 the government of

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

issuing licences for hunting them, with an average of 150,000 penguins (both royal and king) being taken each year. At the peak of the industry in 1905, the plant established on Macquarie Island was processing 2000 penguins at a time, with each penguin yielding about half a litre of oil.Commonwealth Marine Reserves – Home Page
. Environment.gov.au. Retrieved on 2013-09-27. Since the end of penguin hunting on Macquarie the numbers have climbed to 850,000 pairs. Before hunting started, there were three million penguins on the island (both royal and king).

References

External links

* ARKive �
images and movies of the royal penguin ''(Eudyptes schlegeli)''

Australian Antarctic Division: Unusual penguins
Contains picture of hybrid penguins and penguins with non-standard plumage
www.pinguins.info Information about all species of penguins
{{DEFAULTSORT:penguin, royal royal penguin Birds of subantarctic islands Macquarie Island royal penguin Taxa named by Otto Finsch