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

Contents

Appearance and ecology

Status

Naming

Rockhoppers in popular culture

References

External links

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 (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.

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

★ 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 Jim 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.

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