Seriously! Penguins on the equator in the Galapagos? Now, if you are of a certain age - grandparents - you’ll remember Chilly Willy the cartoon penguin friend of Woody the Woodpecker who didn’t enjoy being cold. Penguins seem to turn up a lot in films and literature because they are such improbable animals. Flightless birds with flippers in place of wings that waddle about clumsily on shore only to transform into sleek fish-gobbling torpedoes once they are in the water.
Introduction
The Galapagos penguin ( Spheniscus mendiculus) is a unique species of penguin endemic to the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador. It is the only penguin found north of the equator. The Galapagos Islands are a volcanic archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, made up of 13 major islands and an undetermined number of smaller ones. Straddling the equator, a handful of islands sit in the Northern Hemisphere, whilst the majority fall in the Southern Hemisphere. Here, temperatures range from 19C to 32C.
Origin and Habitat
The Galapagos penguin is the most northerly occurring species of penguin in the world, endemic to the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador. They are believed to have traveled to the islands from Antarctica on the Humboldt Current, an ocean current of cold, nutrient-rich water that travels up along the west coast of South America. That cold ocean current brought them to these rugged Galapagos Islands, almost 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) off the west coast of South America.
Most inhabit Fernandina Island and the west coast of Isabela Island. Although they normally breed along the western part of Isabela and Fernandina islands, a small colony is often seen on Bartolomé. They occasionally show up on Floreana and James islands as well.
The cool waters of the Humboldt and Cromwell Currents allow it to survive despite the tropical latitude. The Galápagos penguin is one of the banded penguins, the other species of which live mostly on the coasts of Africa and mainland South America. Adding to the archipelago’s unique ecosystem is the fact that it is situated at the point in the Pacific Ocean where three different ocean currents converge, resulting in a remarkable mixture of cold and warm ocean waters. Therefore, Galapagos penguins not only rely on these currents for sustenance but also as a way of cooling down and escaping the intense heat.
Read also: Galapagos Hawk Feeding Habits
The Galapagos penguins are unique to the Galapagos Islands, predominantly inhabiting Fernandina Island and Isabela Island. 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.
Physical Characteristics
The Galapagos Penguin is one of the smallest species of Penguin and the only one ever found naturally north of the Equator. The Galapagos Penguin is the second smallest species in the world, measuring up to 49 centimeters (19 inches) in length and weighing 2.5 kilograms (5.5 pounds). The average Galápagos penguin is 48-50 centimetres (19-20 in) tall and weighs around 2-4 kilograms (4.4-8.8 lb). Females are usually smaller than males.
Coat is black on the head and back with white markings on the head, belly and underside of the flippers. C-shaped strips of white feathers give the Galapagos penguin its distinctive 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.
Unlike other penguins, the Galapagos Penguin does not have a specific mating and nesting season. The Galapagos penguin instead molts twice per year, shedding their damaged, sun-bleached, algae-stained feathers and growing new ones. Whereas all other penguin species undergo one complete moult per year.
Diet and Feeding Habits
The Galapagos Penguin isn’t different from the other 20 odd species of penguin when it comes to diet. They like fish and lots of them! Being nutrient rich with plankton the Humboldt Current has an abundance of shoaling fish such as sardines, mullet, and anchovies. The diet of the Galapagos penguin consists mainly of cold-water schooling fish, such as sardines, anchovies, and mullet. They eat small schooling fish, mainly mullet, sardines, pilchards and anchovies, and sometimes crustaceans.
Read also: Diet of Flightless Birds
As visual predators, they typically hunt during the day, with a clear protective membrane covering the penguin’s eyes to avoid irritation from the salt water. Though clumsy on land, they are extremely skilled and swift under water, which becomes apparent when snorkeling with them. This is the best way to appreciate penguins’ agility; it is a lot of fun, but do not even try to keep up, as penguins are amazingly fast under water! Despite their notoriously clumsy manner on land, Galapagos penguins are incredibly agile when underwater, swimming at speeds of 35 kilometers per hour and diving up to 27 meters deep; however, most diving trips tend to take place within five meters of the shoreline, at a modest depth of six meters and for a duration of less than one minute.
Like many other pelagic-hunting penguin species, the Galapagos penguin practices group foraging, diving beneath schools of fish, herding them towards the surface, and picking them off from below. Galapagos penguins have been observed participating in multispecies feedings with numerous types of seabirds including flightless cormorants (Campsohaelius harrisi, formerly Nannopterum harrisi), brown pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis), brown noddies (Anous stolidus), blue-footed (Sula nebouxii) and masked boobies (Sula dactylatra), magnificent frigatebirds (Fregata magnificens), and Audubon shearwaters (Puffinus lhenninieri). Field observations indicate that pursuit-divers, such as Galápagos penguins and flightless cormorants, force prey animals to stay near the shore and surface of the water for a longer period of time, thus increasing the duration of these flocks.
They play a role in regulating the populations of the marine species they consume.
Behavior and Communication
Galapagos penguins undergo a molt twice per year and always prior to breeding. They also tend to bond with one partner for life. The pair will preen each other and tap bills, which reinforces their partnership. They use vocalizations and some body movements to communicate emotions and greetings. Different vocalizations and movements help them identify their partners and chicks.
Adapting to the equatorial climate of the Galápagos, these penguins exhibit unique behavioral and physiological traits. Unlike their Antarctic counterparts, they have evolved to withstand warmer temperatures. They pant and seek shade during the hottest parts of the day to regulate body temperature. One method involves stretching out their flippers and hunching forward to keep the sun from shining on their feet, which exchange heat rapidly because they have high blood flow and lack insulation. Another method is to pant, using evaporation to cool the throat and airways. The Galápagos penguins' flipper-like wings and streamlined bodies enhance their easy movements in water. Their white and black colors also aid in thermal regulation and camouflaging. All these features promote and ensure survival in the harsh conditions present in their coastal habitat, hence the symbiotic relationship between the Galápagos penguins and their natural environment.
Read also: The Hoxsey Diet
Breeding and Reproduction
Galapagos penguins mate for life and lay 1 or 2 eggs in cracks, caves, crevices or now the artificial nests as well. They can breed up to 4 times a year. The eggs must be protected from direct sunlight so the male and female take turns to incubate the eggs. Two eggs are laid 4 days apart, and incubation lasts up to 40 days. The male and female share the duties of incubating the eggs, allowing both adults to forage for food. Chicks are born after 40 days and leave the nest 20 days later. Females may have as many as three clutches per year. Breeding can occur year-round; two broods a year are possible under good conditions. Colonies are small and not tightly packed with nests.
Due to the unpredictability of prey abundance at certain times of the year, the Galapagos penguin has evolved into an opportunistic breeder, nesting only when food is plentiful and ocean water temperatures are cool. Although the Galapagos penguin doesn’t need to worry about their eggs freezing as Antarctic penguins do, overheating and predators are two major concerns for parent penguins nesting along the coastline. Whereas fellow South American penguin species dig burrows beneath soil or guano (a build-up of seabird excrement), the Galapagos penguin must utilize natural cracks, caves, and rock depressions within dried lava formations to nest in.
The penguins' breeding patterns depend on finding suitable nesting places within the volcanic landscape. Galápagos penguins are a monogamous species, each pair mating for life. After completing courtship, with rituals including bill dueling, flipper patting, and mutual preening, the pair will build and maintain a nest. Most nests are seen between May and July because both quantity of food and climate conditions are typically most optimal. The nests are made within 50 metres (160 ft) of the water on the shore. Adults stay near the breeding area during the year with their mate. One parent will always stay with the eggs or young chicks while the other may be absent for several days to feed. A pair usually rears only one chick. Galápagos penguins will molt before they breed, and are the only penguins to do this twice a year. It takes about 60-65 days for the chicks to become independent.
If conditions are optimal, a breeding pair can produce two to three clutches of eggs per year. Once a pair has mated, the female can lay up to two eggs, which are then incubated by either parent for a period of 35 to 42 days. Until the hatched chicks are 21 to 30 days old, one parent guards the nest whilst the other forages for food. Chicks become fully-fledged and independent after approximately 60 days, although in times of plenty parent penguins have been shown to continue feeding fledglings. It is hypothesized that post-fledging care in the Galapagos penguin is an evolutionary adaptation to maximize reproductive success, as offspring are given the opportunity to further practice their hunting abilities before having to catch their own food. However, if resources are scarce, parent penguins will abandon their chicks and skip breeding windows to survive times of famine.
Predators and Threats
Adult and juvenile Galapagos penguins are prey for sharks, sea lions, and Galapagos fur seals when hunting underwater. Adult penguins serve as an important source of food for a multitude of predators, such as sharks, whales, sea lions, and fur seals, whilst chicks and juveniles are preyed upon by crabs, snakes, hawks, and owls.
The Galapagos Penguin is also threatened by invasive species such as rats, dogs and feral cats which either kill the adults and/or feast on the eggs and then also there is the issue that many of their nesting sites have disappeared. On Isabela Island, humans may be contributing to the decline of this species due to introduced cats, dogs, and rats which attack penguins, destroy nests, and spread disease. Other threats on land include crabs, snakes, rice rats, Galápagos hawks, and short-eared owls. While in the water, predators include sharks, fur seals, and sea lions. They also face the hazards of unreliable food resources and volcanic activity.
The Galapagos Penguin is also threatened by invasive species such as rats, dogs and feral cats which either kill the adults and/or feast on the eggs and then also there is the issue that many of their nesting sites have disappeared.
Conservation Status and Efforts
These tropical penguins are also by far the rarest penguins in the world. They are highly endangered with just 2000 individuals left. They are still recovering from the particularly strong El Nino event of 1983 which saw 70% of them perish due to starvation and inability to reproduce.
The Galapagos Penguin is one of the smallest species of Penguin and the only one ever found naturally north of the Equator. This endemic, flightless bird is an excellent swimmer: it will nimbly dart among the coral and rocks of Galapagos waters nipping up small fish with blinding speed.
From an emblematic standpoint, the Galapagos penguin is the one of the rarest species of penguin in the world with a mere 1,200 individuals remaining and is strictly endemic to the Galapagos Islands. A testament to Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, the Galapagos penguin is a remarkable species with incredible morphological and behavioural adaptations to suit its unique habitat.
The government of Ecuador, together with local populations, national charities, international organizations, scientific communities, and fellow world leaders, have worked incredibly hard over the past decades to preserve the unique and delicate ecosystem of the Galapagos Islands. 95% of the Galapagos penguin population is typically found on just two islands, Isabela and Fernandina, which are both under the protection of the national park.
The Galapagos Conservancy organization has recognized this problem and created a solution by building 120 “penguin condos”, high-quality shady nest sites and then monitoring the sites in subsequent years to see if they are in fact being used. In 2010, with the support of the Galapagos Conservancy, Doctor Boersma and her research team built 120 shaded nests from stacked lava rocks and tunnels dug into slopes within primary nesting areas. By 2015, 13 of the new nests contained eggs or chicks. Since the program’s inception, almost 25% of all observed breeding activity has taken place within constructed nests. On some islands, such as in the Mariela Islands, constructed nests were utilized by 43% of breeding penguins in some years.
Another crucial factor in optimizing breeding success and promoting population growth is the eradication of invasive species from key breeding sites. Extensive measures have been implemented by national park authorities, such as checking the bags of visitors upon entering and leaving the islands, to ensure that non-native flora and fauna are not accidentally or purposefully brought to the islands.Bolstering conservation aims and agendas is the tremendous amount of research that is conducted by scientific teams, establishing the species’ needs through building a better understanding of its ecological background.
Climate Change and El Niño
The El Niño weather pattern is brought on by a warming of the Pacific Ocean, meaning that the normal cold water fish that makes up the Galapagos Penguin’s diet greatly reduce in number. When the El Niño (ENSO) phenomenon hits the Pacific Ocean basin, the Galapagos Penguin population is hit hard. The warmer water temperature means less food, which leads to postponed mating. During the 1982-83 ENSO, 77 percent of the islands’ penguins starved to death.
Of the threats posed to the Galapagos penguin population, perhaps the most severe is climate change and the aggravating effects it has on climate patterns. The natural phenomenon known as El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a cyclical, large-scale climatic event in which ocean surface temperatures rise and surface winds weaken or change directions in the Pacific Ocean. As a result, upwelling around the Galapagos Islands decreases, leading to fewer nutrients in the pelagic zone, lower plankton concentrations, and a sharp decline in fish populations. In such times of famine, Galapagos penguins skip breeding to avoid starvation, as the decreased resilience of adults towards predation and disease places individuals at greater risk of death. Strong El Niño events in 1982-83 and 1997-98 caused population declines of 77% and 65%, respectively, with recovery rates hindered by the disproportionate effect of such events on female mortality rates.
The primary danger to the Galápagos penguin is the climate phenomena known as El Niño.
Predictive models suggest future El Niño events will increase in frequency and severity over the next century, posing further threats to the Galápagos penguin.
Pollution and Invasive Species
With a relatively limited population size and geographic range from the outset, as well as a heavy reliance on unpredictable oceanic currents, the vulnerable Galapagos penguin population was quickly threatened with extinction upon the introduction of several novel influences on the Islands.
Although praised for its remote location, scientists soon discovered the increased vulnerability of isolated flora and fauna to marine pollution, as it holds little tolerance for habitat disturbance and lacks a suitable alternative terrain. As the Humboldt current travels north along the west coast of South America, it is believed to be the primary vehicle for plastic pollution from the mainland. Species that rely heavily upon the current for sustenance, such as the Galapagos penguin, therefore face an increased risk of ingestion and entanglement; feeding regurgitated plastic to offspring and filling the incredibly delicate food chain of the Galapagos with this indigestible material.
On the Galapagos Islands, the intentional introduction of feral cats in 1832 has since posed an enormous threat to penguin populations on numerous islands. In addition to predation and habitat disturbance, feral cats are amongst the numerous invasive species that carry potent diseases previously unknown to the inhabitants of the Galapagos.