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Magellanic Penguin Facts

Magellanic penguins are named for Ferdinand Magellan, who found them on the southern tip of South America in 1520. In spite of their comical waddling gait on land, these birds are extraordinary swimmers, flying efficiently under water at depths up to 300 feet, and covering huge distances in a single day in search of food. They are devoted monogamous mates and good parents.

Habitat
- Anchovies are a favorite food of Magellanic penguins.
  
  Magellanic penguins rely on the cold waters around the southern third of South America for their food. Living off the coasts of Chile and Argentina and around the Falkland Islands, Magellanic penguins remain at sea except for mating, raising their young and molting, in which they grow new feathers. They also migrate each year up to 3,000 miles, following the hake, squid and anchovies that comprise their main diet.
Life Cycle
- A penguin is sexually mature and able to mate at age 4. A mated pair of penguins may remain together for sixteen years, sharing parenting duties and raising one chick at a time every other year. They may live for as long as 30 years.
Rearing Chicks
- Magellanic penguin with chick in nesting scrape.
  
  Males typically arrive at the breeding site first to clean out the old nest. Many Magellanic penguins have nest burrows that are used for many years. Others may nest under bushes or on shallow scrapes in the ground. On her return to land the female recognizes her mate by call. Parents normally brood their single egg from 40 to 42 days. While one mate is fishing, the other remains with the nest. If there is a nestling, the parent returning from sea feeds the youngster by regurgitating part of the catch in response to the chick's stimulation.
Challenges
- Warmer ocean currents mean that penguins must swim much longer distances for food than they used to. The longer the animals must search for food, the less likely they are to mate and raise a chick. Currently, Magellanic penguins are going 37 miles further per day for food than they did 10 years ago. This means that a foraging parent must expend more energy finding food while a parent staying with the nest must fast longer while awaiting the return of its mate. A nestling can starve if the parent has to go 220 miles or more a day for food. Younger birds who are fishing for themselves may be seriously stressed by these longer food hunts as well.
Conservation Status
- Oil slicks kill penguins despite efforts to halt ballast dumping and well malfunctions.
  
  Penguins are highly sensitive to climate change and oceanic pollution. Ballast dumping from ships can cause oil pollution which can kill birds that are migrating or hunting for food. Warming water and change of route in sea currents also means penguins can be swept out of their normal patterns of migration with resulting dislocation, exhaustion and starvation. In addition, commercial fisheries have an impact of the food sources of these penguins and tourism can have an adverse impact as well. Because of these challenges, penguin numbers have declined steadily. They now carry the designation "Nearly Endangered" given by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.

Animals & Science