• Summary
• Text account
• Data table and detailed info
• Distribution map
• Reference and further resources

Taxonomic source(s)
Christidis, L. and Boles, W.E. 2008. Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds. CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Australia.
del Hoyo, J., Collar, N.J., Christie, D.A., Elliott, A. and Fishpool, L.D.C. 2014. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 1: Non-passerines. Lynx Edicions BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK.
SACC. 2005 and updates. A classification of the bird species of South America. Available at: https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm.
Turbott, E.G. 1990. Checklist of the Birds of New Zealand. Ornithological Society of New Zealand, Wellington.

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
-	-	-

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2020	Least Concern
2018	Least Concern
2016	Least Concern
2012	Near Threatened	A2be+3be+4be
2010	Near Threatened	A2b,c,d; A3b,c,d; A4b,c,d
2008	Near Threatened	A2b,c,d; A3b,c,d; A4b,c,d
2004	Near Threatened
2000	Lower Risk/Near Threatened
1994	Lower Risk/Least Concern
1988	Lower Risk/Least Concern

Migratory status	not a migrant	Forest dependency	does not normally occur in forest
Land-mass type	shelf island	Average mass	-

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence (breeding/resident)	16,500,000 km2	medium
Extent of Occurrence (non-breeding)	53,000,000 km2	medium
Severely fragmented?	no	-

	Estimate	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
Population size	774000 mature individuals	medium	estimated	2013
Population trend	stable	poor	suspected	1989-2024
Generation length	11.5 years	-	-	-
Percentage of mature individuals in largest subpopulation	100%	-	-	-

Population justification: The global population is estimated at 774,000 mature individuals (Lynch 2013).

Trend justification: Overall, the global population is assumed to be stable. 

On the Falkland Islands (Malvinas), annual monitoring has provided increasing evidence of large fluctuations at the population scale over extended time periods (c 10-12 years; A. Stanworth pers. comm.). Reports of population declines by c.45% from 1932-33 to 1995-96 (Bingham 1998), following periods of apparent stability (Trathan et al. 1996, Bingham 2002, Clausen & Huin 2003, Crawford et al. 2009, Forcada & Trathan 2009), are within the scale of these fluctuations (A. Stanworth pers. comm.). Population trends were positive over ~15 years until recently, but populations took a downturn with a 35% drop in the number of breeding pairs between 2015 and 2016 at annually monitored sites, with a small recovery since (Crofts & Stanworth 2019). Prior to the decline in 2015, the number of breeding pairs was higher than that observed in 1932-33 (132,000 compared to 116,000) (Baylis et al. 2013). In the south-western Atlantic Ocean, rates of change simulated from census data from 70 breeding sites showed average rates of increase of 2.4% per year (Lynch et al. 2012).

In the Antarctic Peninsula, populations are increasing (Lynch et al. 2008, Ducklow et al. 2013, Lynch 2013) in tandem with a southward range expansion (Lynch 2013, Crawford et al. 2015). Here, regional populations have grown by more than 1,100% since 1974, e.g. in the Palmer Archipelago (Fountain et al. 2016, Fraser 2016).

The populations at sub-Antarctic islands may have decreased substantially in the past—at Bird Island, South Georgia by c.67% in 25 years (J. P. Croxall in litt. 1999), and at Marion Island (Prince Edward Islands) by 52% (Dyer and Crawford 2015) between 1994 and 2012. However, populations at some locations now appear to be stable or increasing (Forcada and Trathan 2009, Lynch 2013, Dunn et al. 2016), though populations are still declining at Marion Island (Crawford et al. 2014) and may still be declining on Heard Island, on Kerguelen Island (Lescroël and Bost 2006) and Crozet (C.A. Bost in litt. 2019), all in the southwest Indian Ocean. The reasons for the changes are unknown, but could be related to changing marine foodwebs.

Country/Territory	Presence	Origin	Resident	Breeding visitor	Non-breeding visitor	Passage migrant
Antarctica	extant	native		yes
Argentina	extant	native
Australia	extant	native		yes
Bouvet Island (to Norway)	extant	uncertain
Chile	extant	native			yes
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)	extant	native		yes
French Southern Territories	extant	native		yes
Heard Island and McDonald Islands (to Australia)	extant	native		yes
New Zealand	extant	vagrant
South Africa	extant	native		yes
South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands	extant	native		yes
St Helena (to UK)	extant	vagrant

Country/Territory	IBA Name
Antarctica	Antarctica Marine 11
Antarctica	Antarctica Marine 12
Antarctica	Antarctica Marine 2
Antarctica	Antarctica Marine 3
Antarctica	Antarctica Marine 4
Antarctica	Antarctica Marine 7
Antarctica	Antarctica Marine 9
Antarctica	Ardley Island, King George Island
Antarctica	Cuverville Island
Antarctica	Petermann Island
Antarctica	Rosenthal Islands
Antarctica	West Admiralty Bay, King George Island
Antarctica	Yankee Harbour, Greenwich Island
Australia	Macquarie Island
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)	Beauchêne Island
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)	Beaver Island Group
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)	Bertha's Beach, East Falkland
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)	Bleaker Island Group
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)	Bull Point, East Falkland
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)	Hope Harbour, West Falkland
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)	Jason Islands Group
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)	Keppel Island
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)	Lively Island Group
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)	New Island Group
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)	Passage Islands Group
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)	Pebble Island Group
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)	Saunders Island
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)	Sea Lion Islands Group
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)	Seal Bay, East Falkland
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)	Speedwell Island Group
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)	Volunteer Point, East Falkland
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)	West Point Island Group
French Southern Territories	Île aux Cochons
French Southern Territories	Île de l'Est
French Southern Territories	Île Foch, Île Sainte Lanne Gramont and Île Howe
French Southern Territories	Îles Nuageuses and Île Clugny
French Southern Territories	Péninsule Courbet
French Southern Territories	Péninsule Rallier du Baty
French Southern Territories	Southern coast of Péninsule Jeanne d'Arc
Heard Island and McDonald Islands (to Australia)	Heard and McDonald Islands
South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands	South Georgia - mainland, islands, islets and stacks
South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands	South Georgia Inner Marine
South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands	South Sandwich Islands

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Grassland	Subantarctic	major	breeding
Marine Neritic	Macroalgal/Kelp	major	non-breeding
Marine Neritic	Macroalgal/Kelp	major	breeding
Marine Neritic	Pelagic	major	breeding
Marine Neritic	Pelagic	major	non-breeding
Marine Neritic	Seagrass (Submerged)	major	non-breeding
Marine Neritic	Seagrass (Submerged)	major	breeding
Marine Neritic	Subtidal Loose Rock/pebble/gravel	major	non-breeding
Marine Neritic	Subtidal Loose Rock/pebble/gravel	major	breeding
Marine Neritic	Subtidal Rock and Rocky Reefs	major	non-breeding
Marine Neritic	Subtidal Rock and Rocky Reefs	major	breeding
Marine Neritic	Subtidal Sandy	major	non-breeding
Marine Neritic	Subtidal Sandy	major	breeding
Marine Neritic	Subtidal Sandy-Mud	major	non-breeding
Marine Neritic	Subtidal Sandy-Mud	major	breeding
Marine Oceanic	Epipelagic (0-200m)	major	non-breeding
Marine Oceanic	Epipelagic (0-200m)	major	breeding
Marine Oceanic	Mesopelagic (200-1000m)	major	non-breeding
Marine Oceanic	Mesopelagic (200-1000m)	major	breeding
Altitude		Occasional altitudinal limits

Threat (level 1)	Threat (level 2)	Impact and Stresses
Biological resource use	Fishing & harvesting aquatic resources - Unintentional effects: (large scale) [harvest]	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Indirect ecosystem effects, Species mortality
Biological resource use	Hunting & trapping terrestrial animals - Intentional use (species is the target)	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		No decline		Low Impact: 4
		Stresses Reduced reproductive success
Human intrusions & disturbance	Recreational activities	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Negligible declines		Low Impact: 4
		Stresses Species disturbance
Invasive and other problematic species, genes & diseases	Problematic species/disease of unknown origin - Unspecified species	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Causing/Could cause fluctuations		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Species mortality
Pollution	Industrial & military effluents - Oil spills	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Future		Minority (<50%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Low Impact: 3
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation, Species mortality

Purpose	Scale
Food - human	subsistence, national
Fuels	subsistence, national
Pets/display animals, horticulture	international

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Gentoo Penguin Pygoscelis papua. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/gentoo-penguin-pygoscelis-papua on 22/12/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 22/12/2024.