Yellow Eyed Penguin Profile

Penguins are well known to be Antarctic animals. But there are and were quite a few species that occupied niches further North, and in fact they make up the majority. Most species occupy the subantarctic, and some go as far as the temperature regions above that. One species even lives on the equator and is the only one to touch the Northern Hemisphere.

But this is a digression, because New Zealand is home to three of these non-Antarctic species, and among them, the largest, and the most recognisable is the Yellow-eyed penguin. And unfortunately, it’s also a reminder of the damage humans are doing to the entire Antarctica diaspora. 

Yellow Eyed Penguin Facts Overview

Habitat:	Forest and scrub remnants, pasture
Location:	New Zealand, mostly South Island, also Stewart Island and adjacent islands
Lifespan:	Average of 23 years
Size:	62–79 cm tall,
Weight:	3–8.5 kg.
Colour:	Black and white, with yellow eye feathers and pink feet
Diet:	Mostly fish, 10% squid, jellyfish and crustaceans
Predators:	Sea lions, also invasive animals like cats, dogs, mustelids
Top Speed:	Not recorded
No. of Species:	1
Conservation Status:	Endangered

The yellow-eyed penguins are the largest of this diaspora, reaching more than 70cm in height, and contributing to the natural balance of the marine ecosystems around the continental shelf off the coast of New Zealand. Their evolutionary nemesis is the New Zealand sea lion, which hunts them in the water, but having grown up on a land with no natural predators they never evolved to defend against the influx of dogs and cats that humans have recently brought with them.

Unfortunately, a wealth of human-related factors has led to their rapid decline and they are now endangered, but eco-tourism shows a glimmer of hope for reversing this.

Interesting Yellow-eyed Penguin Facts

1. They’re pretty deep divers

Yellow-eyed penguins hunt primarily in the upper 50 to 100 metres of the ocean, but they can and do dive deeper on occasion. The deepest recorded dive in this species is around 250 metres, which is about half of the record for the deepest diving bird – also a penguin – found in the emperor penguins.

It’s also deeper than the average dive of the emperor penguin, which is around 200 metres. Not bad, for an animal a third of its mass!

Since these birds feed almost entirely on the sea bed, most of this species’ dives are limited more by where the bottom of the ocean is, rather than how deep the water is.

The genus name Megadyptes in fact means, large diver.

2. They’re marine predators

As penguins, they are pretty clumsy on land, but really open up as soon as they hit the water. Over 90% of their foraging occurs at the edge of the continental shelf, which defines this species as a true marine predator, and since most of their diet is fish, they are a significant contributor to this ecosystem too.

They have a few natural predators of their own, the main one being the New Zealand sea lion, which is their native threat. Unfortunately, as we’ll discuss, the majority of their realised predators are invasive animals.

3. They’re the largest penguin outside of the Antarctic

Yellow-eyed penguins are relatively large compared with other penguins of their kind. While not as enormous as some of the Antarctic group, they are, at around 70 cm tall, the largest penguins you can find out of the Antarctic.

Aside from their relative size, they are also easy to distinguish on account of their yellow eyes that give them their name, though these only show up as the animal matures and are not seen in the juveniles¹.

Sadly, the most outstanding thing about them is that they’re about the only penguin left in the region.

4. They’re in a lot of danger

Considering humans have only been on the islands of New Zealand for around 800 years, they’re really speed running the wave of extinction that traditionally takes at least a thousand years to complete.

Globalisation is the biggest issue for islands like New Zealand, as it brings countless invasive species like rats, cats, and livestock into a world that, in the case of New Zealand, had very few predators at all.

The Yellow-eyes Penguin suffers egg predation from a lot of these invasive animals but is also threatened by a reduction in habitat overall, from modern farming, oil and gas drilling, and other human development.

Unfortunately, this has rendered the species endangered.

5. They’re the last of their kind

This penguin is the only species left in its genus, and it’s the only subspecies left in its species, the rest of its kind having been eradicated from the North Island and the Chatham Islands around 800 km away, as a result of hunting in the 1800s².

This particular subspecies almost went the same way, and was reduced to just 44 breeding pairs in recent years.

This is now one of the rarest penguins, having dropped by around 75% in a brief period of only 15 years, but the late arrival of protections may help cub some of this decline. Most recent estimates suggest there are now up to 3,000 mature individuals³.

6. Tourism might help

A small area of this penguin’s range is now protected, but the species itself is now considered a flagship species for nature-based tourism on the South Island.

New Zealand is a hotspot for eco-tourism⁴, and accesses a large market from China, the US and Canada, among many others, and there are drives to improve this industry to help fund reserves and protect its native wildlife.

So, one way anyone can help animals like the Yellow-eyed penguin is to visit!⁵ And in turn, this helps penguins support the New Zealand economy and spreads awareness about the animals that need help.

Yellow-eyed penguin Fact-File Summary

Scientific Classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Sphenisciformes
Family:	Spheniscidae
Genus:	Megadyptes
Species:	antipodes

 

 

1. William Wardell , “Megadyptes antipodesyellow-eyed penguin”, Animal Diversity Web.
2. , “Yellow-eyed penguin/hoiho”, Department of Conservation.
3. (2020), “Yellow-eyed Penguin Megadyptes antipodes”, The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020.
4. Hombron & Jacquinot (1841), “Yellow-eyed penguin/Hoiho”, New Zealand Birds Online.
5. (2024), “New research shows natural landscapes and unique culture drivers for visitors ”, Tourism New Zealand .