Western rockhopper penguin
| Western rockhopper penguin Temporal range: Pleistocene to recent
| |
|---|---|
| Adult in the New Island (Falkland Islands) rookery | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Sphenisciformes |
| Family: | Spheniscidae |
| Genus: | Eudyptes |
| Species: | E. chrysocome
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| Binomial name | |
| Eudyptes chrysocome (J. R. Forster, 1781)
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| Distribution map of rockhopper penguins Green: western rockhopper penguin; blue: eastern rockhopper penguin; yellow: northern rockhopper penguin | |
| Synonyms | |
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The western rockhopper penguin (Eudyptes chrysocome) is a species of rockhopper penguin. It occurs in subantarctic waters around the southern coast of South America and nearby islands.
The western rockhopper penguin was formerly considered to be conspecific with the eastern rockhopper penguin (Eudyptes filholi) of the western Pacific and Indian Oceans, with the combined species then known as southern rockhopper penguin. These two taxa together had previously also been considered conspecific with the northern rockhopper penguin (E. moseleyi).