Northern Rockhopper Penguin

About the Northern Rockhopper Penguin

The northern rockhopper penguin (Eudyptes moseleyi), also known as Moseley's rockhopper penguin, Moseley's penguin, or Tristan penguin, is a penguin species native to the southern Indian and Atlantic Oceans. It was formerly considered conspecific with the eastern and western rockhopper penguins.

A study published in 2009 showed that the population of the northern rockhopper had declined by 90% since the 1950s. For this reason, the northern rockhopper penguin is classified as endangered. The rockhopper penguins have been considered to consist of two species, northern and southern rockhopper penguin, since research published in 2006 demonstrated morphological, vocal, and genetic differences between the two populations. The latter species was itself later split into the eastern rockhopper penguin and the western rockhopper penguin. Molecular datings suggest that the genetic divergence between the northern and the two southern species of rockhopper penguin may have been caused by a vicariant event caused by a shift in the position of the Subtropical Front during the mid-Pleistocene climate transition.

Analysis of a part of a mitochondrial control region from a northern... Wikipedia →