| Background Information |
The Yellow-eyed penguins are the sole members of the genus Megadyptes. They are a beautiful bird that is easily recognized given their profuse yellow coloring of their heads and their yellow irises. They are above average in size for penguins, weighing around 11.5 pounds and standing 21 inches tall. Both the male and female are monomorphic and can live about 20 years.
These birds inhabit New Zealand, specifically the Aukland Islands and the Campbell Islands. On these islands the breeding occurs during the months of September (egg laying) to March (fledging). When they do settle down, they typically search out the recesses of forested areas, as they generally do not nest within sight of other mating pairs. The female, like most other penguin females, lays two eggs.
The principal diet of the Yellow-eyed penguin conists of small fish. When they spend their time on shore, predation seems to be mostly ferrets (nest predation), stoats, and dogs.
There are about 5000 birds (a 1993 census). Since they tend to share their grounds with farmers and since their forests are occassionally subject to fires, their numbers are declining. This is one instance of many in which the activities of man elicits the natural behaviour of animals. As yellow-eyed nesting sites are destroyed by fires and grazing, the conflict in mating behaviour arises: yellow-eyeds nest in deeply forested recesses and out of sight of one another. As forest is destroyed, pairs have to mate closer to one another. This disrupts the natural breeding behaviour of the species and diminishes success of pairs. They are a vunerable species and may be declining for other unknown reasons.
| Author Bernard Stonehouse |
"There is one species, the Yellow-eyed penguin Megadyptes antipodes, which breeds only in southern New Zealand and neighbouring cold temperate islands. Predominantly pale grey and white, this penguin has a distinctive cap of yellow plumes and yellow, cat-like eyes. It breeds in small, scattered communities on tussock-covered or forested coastal slopes on the southern and southeastern coasts of New Zealand's South Island, on Stewart Island, and on Campbell Island and the Auckland Islands in the Subantarctic zone. Birds are present about the breeding areas throughout the year. No subspecific differences have been detected between northern and southern stocks. Yellow-eyed penguins lay two eggs in sheltered, tussock-lined nests, laying in mid-September to mid-October, feeding their chicks until mid to late March, and undergoing a post nuptial moult in March and early April. Breeding behaviour and population dynamics of a banded New Zealand population were studied in depth over a period of eighteen years by Richdale (1957), though other aspects of the biology of this readily accessible species remain relatively unknown."
| Yellow-eyed penguin multimedia |
- A head shot of a Yellow-eyed penguin - Art Wolfe
- Yellow-eyed penguin standing around
- Another Yellow-eyed penguin standing and observing
- A close-up of a Yellow-eyed penguin - Art Wolfe
- A little family of Yellow-eyed penguins
- A Yellow-eyed penguin lying down
Yellow-eyed penguins returning to the nest. (© PBS)
Yellow-eyed penguin fact sheet. (PDF, 111k)
