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  Profile

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  In flight

Penguins

Snares Penguin

Eudyptes robustus

• rare
• 8 km/h
• Vulnerable

Breeds only on the tiny Snares Islands, 200km off New Zealand. Its entire range fits on a single city block.

Population

~25,000-30,000 breeding pairs (~63,000 mature individuals)

Habitat

Dense breeding colonies on rocky coastal terraces beneath tall forest and scrub canopy (e.g. Olearia lyallii, tussock grass) on subantarctic islands; forages in surrounding cold subantarctic ocean waters

Fun fact

The Snares Penguin breeds nowhere on Earth except the tiny, uninhabited Snares Islands off New Zealand, nesting in colonies tucked beneath dense forest canopy rather than in the open.

Range

Endemic breeder to the Snares Islands (Tini Heke), a small uninhabited island group ~200 km south of New Zealand's South Island; non-breeding wanderers occasionally recorded off Tasmania, southern Australia, Stewart Island, Chatham Islands, and mainland New Zealand

Diet

Mainly krill (especially Nyctiphanes australis, roughly 55-60% of diet by mass), supplemented by small fish (~24-30%) and cephalopods/squid (~10-21%)

Size

0.55 m

Lifespan

20 years