Galápagos Penguin: Facts and Where to See It

A penguin can live on the equator because the sea around western Galápagos is cold. The Humboldt Current and upwelling water from the deep bring cool, nutrient-rich water to the coasts of Isabela and Fernandina, and with it the schools of small fish the penguins hunt. About 95 percent of all Galápagos penguins live on these two western islands.

• Close relatives. The African, Humboldt and Magellanic penguins, all of which dig burrows.
• No burrows. Galápagos has no soft peat to dig in, so the penguins nest in caves and crevices in the coastal lava, just above sea level.
• Fast swimmers. Underwater they reach 35 km/h when hunting, and during chick rearing they feed mostly within 1 km of the shore.

Galápagos penguins mate for life. They breed at any time of year, whenever upwelling brings enough fish, rather than in a fixed season. The female lays one or two eggs, which are incubated for 35 to 40 days. The dark brown chicks leave the nest at eight to nine weeks, and if food is available, the parents go on feeding them after they fledge. While breeding, a pair stays close to its nest site; birds that are not breeding move further away, up to 64 km from the colony.

Galápagos penguin habitat is the cool western coast of the archipelago. The main breeding range runs along about 400 km of coastline on Isabela and Fernandina, where 96 percent of all nests are found, with smaller numbers on Floreana, Santiago, Bartolomé and offshore islets. Their diet is small schooling fish such as anchovies, sardines and mullet, which live in the Galápagos Marine Reserve because the Humboldt Current keeps the water cold.

Because the food depends on cold water, the penguins depend on it too. When the sea warms, the fish move away and the penguins starve.

Guide sighting records list Galápagos penguins at 8 visitor sites on 5 islands. 3 sites are rated Likely, with sightings on most visits, all of them on the western islands: Tagus Cove and Elizabeth Bay on Isabela, and Punta Espinosa on Fernandina. Pinnacle Rock on Bartolomé, Punta Vicente Roca and Los Túneles are rated Possible; at Pinnacle Rock, snorkellers often swim near them. Chinese Hat and Post Office Bay are rated Rare.

Galápagos penguins live and breed in Galápagos all year, so no month rules them out. The guide records note that at Tagus Cove they are more active than usual from June to November. In the next twelve months, 746 departures stop at a site where they are seen.

Yes. BirdLife International lists the Galápagos penguin as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, with a decreasing trend. The species declined by 60 percent between 1970 and 2004. A head count in 2007 found 1,009 penguins, half the number counted in 1970 and 1971.

Why the numbers fall. El Niño years warm the sea and drive away the fish: after the strong El Niño of 1982, 77 percent of the population starved. Introduced cats and rats attack adults and eggs, and at one breeding site a single feral cat killed 49 percent of the adults. Fishing nets drown penguins, and mosquitoes that arrived in the 1980s can carry avian malaria. A model by Vargas and colleagues predicts a decline of more than 80 percent over the next 100 years if strong El Niño events become twice as frequent. Galápagos National Park rules keep visitors at least 2 metres (6 feet) from wildlife, in the water as on land.

1. Choosing a route without the west. All Likely sites are on Isabela and Fernandina, where about 95 percent of the penguins live. A route that stays in the central or eastern islands makes a sighting a matter of luck.
2. Looking for a colony on a beach. The penguins nest in lava caves and crevices, and most sightings come from a panga ride along the shore or while snorkelling.
3. Expecting large numbers. With a few thousand birds at most, a sighting usually means a handful of penguins, not a crowd.
4. Swimming up to them. Park rules set at least 2 metres between visitors and wildlife, and that applies when snorkelling.