Endangered
Galápagos Penguin
Spheniscus mendiculus
The Galápagos penguin is a penguin endemic to the Galápagos Islands of Ecuador.
Appearance
Galápagos penguins have a black head with a white border running from behind the eye, around the black ear coverts and chin, to join on the throat. The feathers on their back, flippers, and head are black, and they have a white belly and a stripe looping from their eyes down to their neck and chin.
It is the second-smallest species of penguin, after the little penguin.
The average Galápagos penguin is 48–50 centimetres (19–20 in) tall and weighs around 2–4 kilograms (4.4–8.8 lb).
Range and habitat
Ninety percent of Galápagos penguins live on Fernandina Island and the west coast of Isabela Island, in the western part of the archipelago, but small populations also occur on Santiago, Bartolomé, northern Santa Cruz, and Floreana. The Galápagos penguins have a symbiotic relationship with their habitat. Fernandina and Isabela Islands provide rocky coastlines ideal for nesting, and the surrounding waters, enriched by the Cromwell Current, abound with fish and crustaceans that form their diet.
The Galápagos penguin is a penguin endemic to the Galápagos Islands of Ecuador. Most inhabit Fernandina Island and the west coast of Isabela Island.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
Galápagos penguins are confined to the Galápagos Islands, foraging in the cool Cromwell Current during the day and returning to the land at night. During El Niño seasons, the penguins defer breeding. Their food becomes less abundant, that makes the chance of successfully raising offspring unfavorable compared to the chance of dying in the attempt.
The penguins usually breed when the sea surface temperature is below 25 °C (77 °F). There are around 1,000 breeding pairs of Galápagos penguins in the world, and breeding depends on certain climate events.
In crisis
Because there are no soft areas to nest, their nests are typically in caves and crevices that also provide protection against predators and the harsh environment. Their mean population size from the years 1993–2003 was an average of 1,500. In 2003 there were an estimated 1,351 penguins and as of 2018 there are around 1,200 mature penguins left.
The population size on average is about 1,500 individuals per year, depending on the climate events. Population trends were seen to increase and decrease in a span of a year due to La Niña and El Niño events, weather events that affect the conditions on the Galápagos Islands.
Galápagos Penguin is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Galápagos Penguin, Wikidata item Q206668. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
