Northern Rockhopper Penguin

Rockhoppers have a black crest and yellow feathers which form extended `eyebrows’ that dangle behind the eyes.

These penguins are very vocal. Throwing their heads back, they `bray’ during courtship, to locate chicks, or warn others to stay away.

They are aggressive birds and will attack anything that bothers them. During fights, they slap each other with their flippers.

Rockhopper penguins are so named because of their ability to hop over rocks and boulders, sometimes reaching heights of up to 1.8m.

They have very powerful legs for hopping and strong feet to grasp slippery and steep rocky surfaces along shorelines. Their powerful tail acts as a counterbalance when they leap.

Rockhopper penguins are lesser known for the epic voyages they make — each year, they spend six months at sea, swimming continuously to achieve one of the longest foraging trips made by animals.

In the six months, they swim over two million square kilometres — an incredible feat in deadly cold water!

A female rockhopper penguin lays two eggs in a clutch. The first egg is smaller than the second, and it is always doomed! The mother might push it out of her nest or not incubate it.

Very rarely do both eggs hatch, even so the smaller chick from the first egg inevitably dies soon after.

Both parents care for the chick for about 70 days before leaving to forage at sea. The chick joins a creche.

A male penguin, subsequently named Pierre, was rescued from the shores of Australia in July 2020 and sent to Perth Zoo for rehabilitation.

However, he could not be released to the wild as he had arrested moulting which means that moulting had stopped, leaving him with no waterproof feathers to survive the cold nor swim well.

As Perth Zoo did not house rockhopper penguins, he was transferred to us in December 2020.

Pierre arrived in poor form at Jurong Bird Park. He was also afflicted with low appetite.

Our keepers made significant changes to his environment, lowering the ambient temperature and providing different substrates such as turf mat, pebble wash and rocks to meet his needs.

We fattened him up with capelins filled with nutrients to promote feather growth. Eventually, he was introduced to our other penguins.

Under the expert and dedicated care of our keepers, Pierre adapted to the new environment. His appetite slowly increased and he began socialising. Over time, he started moulting normally and his feather condition improved tremendously.

Today, Pierre is a handsome fellow happily integrated into our penguin colony at Bird Paradise’s Ocean Network Express Penguin Cove.

In November 2024, we received another northern rockhopper penguin from Perth Zoo, a female called Pascale. This one-year-old penguin was rescued in February 2024 from the shores of Western Australia, far from her home range in the sub-Antarctic oceans.

She spent months recuperating before her transfer. We hope that Pascale will form a pair bond with Pierre soon, to contribute to the population of this endangered species!