Southern rockhopper penguins on the Falkland Islands

© Heike Odermatt/Minden Picture

Rockin' with the rockhoppers

For World Penguin Day, we're featuring a lively group of southern rockhopper penguins on a Falkland Islands beach. Most penguins slide over the ice on their bellies, but these small penguins are a bit more aerobic - they hop. Rockhoppers are among the most common penguin species but pollution, overfishing and climate change have taken a toll. Their population has declined by about 30 percent over the last 30 years. Today, there are an estimated 1.5 million breeding pairs of rockhoppers. About 1 million of those are southern rockhopper couples – the rest are made up of the northern and eastern rockhoppers.