The Humboldt penguin reacts to people 150 metres away, the shyest penguin studied
Walk within 150 metres of a nesting Humboldt penguin and it notices, the greatest reaction distance recorded for any penguin. Its heart can take up to half an hour to settle afterwards, and frequent visits can drive pairs to abandon nests, a real problem for a desert-coast bird that has become an ecotourism draw.
This medium-sized penguin, 56 to 70 centimetres long, lives only along the Pacific shores of Peru and Chile, from southern Chile past the Atacama Desert to Isla Foca in northern Peru. Both the bird and the cold, nutrient-rich current that feeds it honour the explorer Alexander von Humboldt. Peruvians call it pajaro-niño, baby bird, because its waddle and outstretched flippers resemble a toddler on the beach. Males and females look alike, though males are bigger.
Traditionally it nested in burrows dug into thick layers of guano, though it also uses caves, cliff tops and scrapes. Most pairs lay two equal-sized eggs four days apart, incubating them for 41 days, and about half of females raise two clutches a year. Courtship includes a so-called ecstatic display, in which the bird stretches its head skyward, flaps its wings and lets out a call like a braying donkey.
It hunts by sight, chasing schooling fish such as anchovy, garfish and herring, usually within 35 kilometres of its colony at Pan de Azúcar and down to 54 metres. During breeding the whole population needs an estimated 1,400 tons of fish, leaving it exposed to overfishing and nets. El Niño years, when upwelling of nutrient-rich water weakens, bring mass deaths of juveniles, deserted nests and failed breeding as birds follow anchovies south.
The IUCN lists it as vulnerable, with roughly 23,800 mature birds in a declining population and no recovery plan in place. Oddly, in July 2002 fishermen pulled one from a net off Prince of Wales Island, Alaska, the sole wild penguin ever logged on that continent, though whether it had escaped captivity remains unknown.
Source: Humboldt penguin
