How Many Penguin Species Have You Seen?

MOG2012

MOG2012

Well-Known Member
With @snowleopard finishing his thread with penguins, I wanted to see how many people have seen penguins as they are extremely common in zoos but there's a lot of diversity

I've seen 9 penguins in captivity but I haven't seen any in the wild yet.
  • Great Penguins (Aptenodytes) - 1/2
    • King Penguin Aptenodytes patagonicus at ABQ BioPark Zoo & Central Park Zoo
  • Crested Penguins (Eudyptes) - 2/7
    • Macaroni Penguin Eudyptes chrysolophus at ABQ BioPark Zoo & Central Park Zoo
    • Southern Rockhopper Penguin Eudyptes chrysocome at New England Aquarium & Shedd Aquarium
  • Little Penguins (Eudyptula) - 1/2
    • Australian Little Penguin Eudyptula novaehollandiae at New England Aquarium
  • Yellow-eyed Penguins (Megadyptes) - 0/1
  • Brush-tailed Penguins (Pygoscelis) - 2/3
    • Chinstrap Penguin Pygoscelis antarcticus at Central Park Zoo
    • Gentoo Penguin Pygoscelis papua at ABQ BioPark Zoo & Central Park Zoo
  • Banded Penguins (Spheniscus) - 3/4
    • African Penguin Spheniscus demersus at Monterey Bay Aquarium, New England Aquarium & Steinhart Aquarium
    • Humboldt Penguin Spheniscus humboldti at l'Aquarium Barcelona & London Zoo
    • Magellanic Penguin Spheniscus magellanicus at San Francisco Zoo & Shedd Aquarium
How many penguins have you seen?
 
I’d imagine everyone has 7-10 penguin species but here’s mine:
1. King Penguin, Detroit
2. Chinstrap Penguin, Newport Aquarium
3. Gentoo Penguin, Detroit
4. Macaroni Penguin, Detroit
5. Western Rockhopper Penguin, Shedd Aquarium
6. Rockhopper Penguin, Detroit
7. Magellanic Penguin, Potter Park
8. Humboldt Penguin, Columbus
9. African Penguin, Toledo
10. Adelie Penguin, Sea World Orlando
11. Blue Penguin, Birch Aquarium

11/14? Species, not bad hopefully one day I can finish the list!
 
USZOOfan42 said:
I’d imagine everyone has 7-10 penguin species but here’s mine:
1. King Penguin, Detroit
2. Chinstrap Penguin, Newport Aquarium
3. Gentoo Penguin, Detroit
4. Macaroni Penguin, Detroit
5. Western Rockhopper Penguin, Shedd Aquarium
6. Rockhopper Penguin, Detroit
7. Magellanic Penguin, Potter Park
8. Humboldt Penguin, Columbus
9. African Penguin, Toledo
10. Adelie Penguin, Sea World Orlando
11. Blue Penguin, Birch Aquarium

11/14? Species, not bad hopefully one day I can finish the list!
Click to expand...
Western Rock hopper penguins are just the nominate subspecies of southern rock hopper penguins so you are at 10
 
Hello.

1. (Spheniscus demersus) - African penguin
2. (Spheniscus humboldti) - Humbdolt penguin
3. (Spheniscus magellanicus) - Magellanic penguin
 
From Memory:
- Adelie Penguin (Faunia Madrid)
- African Penguin (Madrid Zoo Aquarium, Lisbon Zoo, Ocean World Montpellier, Birdworld, Whipsnade Zoo)
- Chinstrap Penguin (Faunia Madrid)
- Humboldt Penguin (Faunia Madrid, London Zoo)
- King Penguin (Faunia Madrid, Pairi Dazia, Hong Kong Ocean Park)
- Macaroni Penguin? (Possibly at London Zoo)
- Magellanic Penguin? (Possibly at Faunia Madrid)
- Northern Rockhopper Penguin (Whipsnade Zoo, Edinburgh Zoo)
- Subantarctic Gentoo Penguin (Bergen Aquarium, Faunia Madrid, Oceanografic, Edinburgh Zoo, Pairi Dazia)
- Western Rockhopper Penguin (Faunia Madrid, Pairi Dazia, Ocean Park Hong Kong)

That leaves Emperor, Antarctic Gentoo, Western Little Blue and Eastern Rockhopper Penguin to see in captivity for me.
 
Randomname0183 said:
From Memory:
- Adelie Penguin (Faunia Madrid)
- African Penguin (Madrid Zoo Aquarium, Lisbon Zoo, Ocean World Montpellier, Birdworld, Whipsnade Zoo)
- Chinstrap Penguin (Faunia Madrid)
- Humboldt Penguin (Faunia Madrid, London Zoo)
- King Penguin (Faunia Madrid, Pairi Dazia, Hong Kong Ocean Park)
- Macaroni Penguin? (Possibly at London Zoo)
- Magellanic Penguin? (Possibly at Faunia Madrid)
- Northern Rockhopper Penguin (Whipsnade Zoo, Edinburgh Zoo)
- Subantarctic Gentoo Penguin (Bergen Aquarium, Faunia Madrid, Oceanografic, Edinburgh Zoo, Pairi Dazia)
- Western Rockhopper Penguin (Faunia Madrid, Pairi Dazia, Ocean Park Hong Kong)

That leaves Emperor, Antarctic Gentoo, Western Little Blue and Eastern Rockhopper Penguin to see in captivity for me.
Click to expand...
Western and eastern rock hoppers are just subspecies for southern rockhopper penguins unless there was a recent split that I didn’t know about
 
I've only seen captive penguins, but have been lucky enough to see almost every species kept in captivity: king, southern rockhopper, macaroni, northern rockhopper, little blue, chinstrap, gentoo, African, Humboldt and Magellanic. To complete the set I just need emperor, Fiordland and Adelie.
 
Wild:

Yellow-eyed penguin
Little blue penguin

Captivity:

Fiordland crested penguin
King penguin
Humboldt penguin
African penguin
Gentoo penguin
Little blue penguin


Fiordland crested penguin (from my trip to Taronga Zoo):

upload_2025-2-12_23-39-16.jpeg
 

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King, Gentoo, Northern Rock hopper, Southern Rockhopper, Magellanic, Humboldt, African.

Penguins are my favourite animals so I'd love to see more!
 
For captivity it might be limited to Humboldt, African and Rockhopper.

I have seen Blue penguins in the wild.
 
Humboldt, African, King, Gentoo, Northern Rockhopper, Southern Rockhopper and, I believe, Macaroni. That's seven. All captive, since I live in the northern hemisphere.
 
In the order that I have seen them and with the collection in which I first saw them:

1. Humboldt Penguin - London Zoo ~2010
2. Northern Rockhopper - London Zoo ~2010
3. Gentoo Penguin - Sea Life London ~2011
4. African Penguin - Whipsnade Zoo 2014
5. King Penguin - Edinburgh Zoo 2021
6. Macaroni Penguin - Antwerp Zoo 2022
7. Little Blue Penguin - Sea Life Weymouth 2024
8. Southern Rockhopper - Océanopolis Brest 2024

8 out of the 11 present in European zoos, with Adelie, Chinstrap and Magellanic being the ones I am missing. Was quite surprised that before this decade I had only seen four - had always thought it was more than that, but happy to have doubled that tally in recent years.
 
Kalaw said:
8 out of the 11 present in European zoos, with Adelie, Chinstrap and Magellanic being the ones I am missing. Was quite surprised that before this decade I had only seen four - had always thought it was more than that, but happy to have doubled that tally in recent years.
Click to expand...

Given the possible split of Eastern Rockhopper, it might be wise to get to Pairi Daiza to get that taxon too ;)
 
Currently, every species of penguin that I ever saw were in a captive setting; but with a total of ten species seen, I’d say it’s still impressive (at least, from my own perspective):

  • King Penguin*
  • Gentoo Penguin
  • Rockhopper Penguin* - non-subspecific; according to Zootierliste
  • Western Little Penguin / E. m. novaehollandae
  • Adelie Penguin
  • African Penguin
  • Humboldt Penguin
  • Magellanic Penguin
  • Chinstrap Penguin
  • Macaroni Penguin
  • Emperor Penguin? - if SeaWorld Orlando had any, prior to 2013?

As an added bonus, I also had the opportunity to get up-close and touch two species of penguin, via, the same behind-the-scenes encounter* that I participated several years ago.
 
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