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Southern Rockhopper Penguin
The Southern Rockhopper Penguin or just Rockhopper Penguin, Eudyptes chrysocome, is a species of penguin closely related to the Macaroni Penguin.
Appearance and ecology
This is the smallest yellow-crested, black-and-white penguin, reaching a length of 55cm (22 in) and having an average weight of 3.35 kg (7.4 lbs). It has slate-grey upperparts and a straight, bright yellow eyebrow ending in long yellowish plumes projecting sideways behind a red eye. It breeds in colonies, from sea-level to cliff-tops, and sometimes inland. It feeds on krill, squid, octopus, fish, molluscs, plankton, cuttlefish, and crustaceans.
Rockhopper Penguins have a global population of about 3.5 million pairs. The nominate subspecies chrysocome breeds on the Falkland Islands, and on islands off Argentina and southern Chile. The subspecies moseleyi, possibly a distinct species breeds on islands in Tristan da Cunha, and Amsterdam and St Paul Islands. The subspecies filholi breeds on the Prince Edward Islands, the Crozet Islands, the Kerguelen Islands, Heard Island, Macquarie Island, and Campbell Island, New Zealand and the Antipodes Islands.
Status
The status of this species is vulnerable due to a fall of 24% in its population in the last thirty years.
Naming
As their name suggests, they spend their time hopping over rocks, and the explorers who discovered them were amused to see this.
The scientific name for the Rockhopper Penguin is sometimes given as Eudyptes crestatus.
Rockhoppers in popular culture
Several of the characters in the film ''Surf's Up, including protagonist Cody Maverick (voiced by Shia LaBeouf) are Rockhoppers.
Rocko, voiced by James Belushi in the Don Bluth film The Pebble and the Penguin, is a Rockhopper.
The cover of the Fleetwood Mac album Penguin'' features a Rockhopper. The penguin subsequently became Fleetwood Mac's mascot.
Rockhopper IV is the name of a spaceship in Alastair Reynolds's 2005 science fiction novel, Pushing Ice. The ship's logo is a penguin, genus unspecified.
The characters Ivan and Tobi from the Konami video game Sexy Parodius are actually a pair of Rockhoppers.
Fidgel from the Big Idea Productions series 3-2-1 Penguins is a Rockhopper.
Hopper is the name of a Rockhopper Penguin in the Nintendo video game series Animal Crossing.
Rockhopper is also the name of a pirate penguin in the MMOG Club Penguin.
The Rockhopper penguin is an adoptable animal in the 2006 PC game, [[Zoo Tycoon 2: Marine Mania]]. A fictional joke version of it, the "Killer Penguin", appears as a lab accident in the game's sequel, [[Zoo Tycoon 2: Extinct Animals]]. It is depicted as able to kill any animal, including dinosaurs.
References
Database entry includes justification for why this species is vulnerable
External links
ARKive - images and movies of the rockhopper penguin, Eudyptes chrysocome
70South: Info on Rockhopper Penguins
Rockhopper Penguins from the International Penguin Conservation Web Site
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Southern Rockhopper Penguin
