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Southern Rockhopper Penguins were one of the two species we saw with crests. We saw a colony in the Falkland Islands. They are the smallest of the seven penguin species I saw on the trip, and we saw them hopping on rocks as they tried to move down a rocky slope. Some other penguin species hop as well.
Ariosto - Orlando Furioso I
Penguin Classics L311, 1975
Cover: A detail from 'The Battle of San Romano', by Paolo Uccello, in the National Gallery, London
Rockhopper penguins are the smallest of the crested penguins at between 2.3 and 2.7 kg. Males are larger than females.
Rockhopper penguins are the most widespread of the crested penguin, with a circumpolar distribution. They are found on islands near the Antarctic Polar Front to those near the subtropical convergence in the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans.
At a number of sites (Falkland and Campbell Islands, Tristan da Cunha and the Antipodes) the populations have declined substantially. At Campbell Island the decline has been in tbe order of 94%. The speculated reason for these declines is rises in sea surface temperature (due to global warming) which has affected the prey stocks of rockhopper penguins.