The Antarctic is famous for being home to penguins - those enigmatic birds that cannot fly but swim so elegantly in the sea. But further north, just beyond the equator, lives another species of penguin - the Galápagos penguin (Spheniscus mendiculus).

As its name suggests, the Galápagos penguin lives in Galápagos. Its nearest penguin neighbour is the Humbolt penguin, which lives some 1,300 kilometres away in South America. What’s more, our Galápagos penguin is the only species of penguin to live in the northern hemisphere. With an estimated 1,200 mature individuals, it is also one of the rarest penguin species.

If there were an award for the loneliest penguin, surely these penguins would be the winner.

Life in the Tropics

With its tropical climate, life in Galápagos is quite different to that in Antarctica. The heat is challenging for the penguins, but they’ve found some nifty tricks to cope. These include opening their flippers wide and panting to cool down, and hunching over their feet to keep them shaded. Of course, there is always the option of taking a dip in the sea. In fact, they tend to hunt for food in the sea during the day, returning to land at night when it is a bit cooler.

While things are a bit hot in Galápagos, the Cromwell and Humboldt currents bring cold, nutrient-rich waters filled with zooplankton and small fish like sardines, pilchards, and anchovies that the penguins love to eat. Without these cold water currents and their bountiful food supply, the penguins may have never been able to make the Galápagos their home.

Species at Risk

Living only in one small area puts the Galápagos penguin at much greater risk of being hit by disaster than other more widespread (and more numerous) penguin species. Some of the challenges the penguins in the Galápagos face are natural, like El Niño events that warm sea surface waters around the Galápagos. Warmer waters aren’t great for those sardines and other fish that the penguins feed on, so the penguins can find they have less to eat.

When food supplies are low, the Galápagos penguins conserve energy to survive the food shortage. Many penguins will not moult - when birds shed their dirty, damaged coat of feathers and replace it with a new one, many will not breed. If they already have chicks, they may abandon the nest if they can’t find enough food to feed themselves and their chicks.

Yes, it’s a cutthroat world for our penguins, but when food supplies are bountiful, these penguins can be very generous. Some parents will keep feeding their offspring even after they have left the nest and are perfectly capable of hunting in their own right!

Unsurprisingly, many of the challenges these endearing little penguins face come from us.

Back in the 1600s, whalers, seal fur traders, and pirates were attracted to the archipelago’s bounty (well, in the pirate's case, maybe the bounty of the whalers and traders). As they moved to the Galápagos, they brought animals - like black rats, which feast on the penguin's eggs and chicks. It's thought that a single cat on Isabela Island increased the number of adult deaths by a staggering 49% per year. People even brought over a mosquito species, complete with new diseases.

The climate crisis is having an impact. As the crisis deepens, El Niño events will become more frequent and more extreme. Penguins will have to deal with more frequent food shortages, meaning that they are more likely to starve, more likely to get sick, and less likely to have chicks or keep feeding the ones they have.

Fishing also has an impact. Sometimes, penguins are accidentally caught in nets, and of course, there is some concern about the competition for the penguin's food.

All of these factors have combined to produce one sad outcome. The number of penguins is dropping. This lonely penguin is at risk of finding itself even lonelier in the future, but thanks to the efforts of scientists and conservationists, that is not going to happen without a fight.

Not all Doom and Gloom

Most Galápagos penguins live in the Galápagos National Park and use the Galápagos Marine Reserve. This is a good thing because these areas are where authorities are most likely to take conservation action.

Back in 1998, for example, rats were successfully eradicated from the Mariela islets - one of the places where the Galápagos penguins like to breed. In 2016, Rafael Correa, the president of Ecuador, announced several new marine protected areas that prohibit extraction of any kind - including fishing. Several of these sites are in key spots for the penguins - including a major feeding ground off Isabela Island. In 2020, several visitor sites were closed when avian flu was discovered. The virus (H5N1) may have been introduced by other animals that migrated from an area where the infection was rife to the Galápagos, but the virus can be moved around on people’s shoes, too.

Not all conservation actions involve restricting human activity or removing (often killing) other species that have come to call the Galápagos their home. Since 2010, Dr Dee Boersma - a biologist with the University of Washington, and a team of researchers have built artificial nests on three predator-free islands to help the penguins out. These “penguin condos" are made from natural materials like lava rocks and offer shady spots so the penguins can keep cool. They seem to be helping too. Penguin condos in the Mariela islets have accounted for up to 43% of penguin breeding since they were built.

If we take care of the penguins, give them the best possible chance by removing predators, building artificial nests, protecting their food, and tackling the climate crisis, they might stay with us for a long time to come.