Gentoo penguin

How it lives

Gentoos are the third-largest penguins. They build nests from September, and two eggs are laid in October in the Falklands. Eggs hatch after about 34 to 36 days, and chicks fledge by late February after moulting in late January. Breeding begins at about 2 to 5 years, and life expectancy is about 10 to 15 years in the wild. At sea, sea lions take adults, and skuas and caracaras take eggs and chicks at colonies. They are the fastest underwater swimmers of all penguins, reaching up to about 36 km/h (22 mph).

Where it goes

In the Falkland Islands, gentoo penguins can be found on the islands all year round. They breed in about 85 colonies: 17 on outer islands, 32 on West Falkland and 36 on East Falkland. They feed inshore, within about 20 km of the coast, and return to land to rest and breed. Gentoos breed on ice-free subantarctic islands, including the Falklands, South Georgia and the Kerguelen Islands.

We only draw a journey on the map when scientists have tracked it or clearly documented it. For this animal we have not found one yet.

Populations

The IUCN lists the gentoo penguin as Least Concern (2020), with a global population of about 387,000 pairs. A summary of the assessment notes rapid declines in some key areas, such as Bird Island in South Georgia, where numbers fell by about two thirds over 25 years. The Falkland Islands hold the largest regional group. The 2010 archipelago-wide census counted 132,321 plus or minus 2,015 breeding pairs, the highest since the first survey in 1933 and about 34% of the global population, though numbers vary a lot from year to year. Falklands Conservation and local press give a lower figure of about 121,500 pairs for the same census, so published totals differ. Overfishing is named as a main threat in one conservation summary.