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Southern Rockhopper Penguin
Adult Rockhopper in a Falklands Islands rookery
Conservation status
Vulnerable
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Sphenisciformes Family: Spheniscidae Genus: Eudyptes Species: E. chrysocome
Binomial name
Eudyptes chrysocome Forster, 1781
Synonyms
Eudyptes crestatus

Rockhopper colony on Saunders Island, Falkland Islands

The Southern Rockhopper Penguin or just Rockhopper Penguin, Eudyptes chrysocome, is a species of penguin closely related to the Macaroni Penguin.

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 (as Northern Rockhopper Penguin, E. moseleyi) 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.

The status of this species is vulnerable due to a fall of 24% in its population in the last thirty years.

As their name suggests, they spend their time hopping over rocks, and the explorers who discovered them were amused to see this.^{[citation needed]}

The scientific name for the Rockhopper Penguin is sometimes given as Eudyptes crestatus, or Eudyptes Californfalkinalber.

• The character Lovelace, voiced by Robin Williams in the film Happy Feet, is a Rockhopper.
• 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.
• This Adopt Rockhopper Penguin is sound Chirp! in Zoo Tycoon 2: Marine Mania

• BirdLife International (2005). Eudyptes chrysocome. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 05 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is vulnerable
• Eudyptes chrysocome (TSN 559996). Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Accessed on 24 January 2006.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Eudyptes chrysocome

• ARKive - images and movies of the rockhopper penguin (Eudyptes chrysocome)
• 70South: Info on Rockhopper Penguins
• Rockhopper Penguins from the International Penguin Conservation Web Site