Abstract
SUMMARY: The Magellan region, including the Falkland Islands, is one of the world’s most important areas for seabirds, and especially penguins. World-wide there are 17 species of penguin; 7 of these regularly breed around the coastal waters of South America, and 5 within the Magellan region. These are the King Penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus), Gentoo Penguin (Pygoscelis papua), Rockhopper Penguin (Eudyptes c. chrysocome), Macaroni Penguin (Eudyptes chrysolophus) and Magellanic Penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus). During the last five years, a review of the breeding populations of penguins within the Magellan region was conducted. This work included population censuses of all the surface breeding species throughout the Falkland Islands and southern South America. The results of this work are presented, along with other cited information, to provide a summary of the current knowledge of penguin populations within the Magellan region.
Highlights
During 1995/96, a population census of all penguin species was conducted around the Falkland Islands (Bingham, 1998b)
The only exception to this was the Magellanic Penguin, which because of its widespread, low-density distribution in burrows, made it PENGUINS OF THE MAGELLAN REGION 485 impossible to census with methods employed for surface nesting species (Bingham, 1998b)
For this reason the Magellanic Penguin had been excluded from the Falkland Islands census
Summary
During 1995/96, a population census of all penguin species (except the Magellanic Penguin) was conducted around the Falkland Islands (Bingham, 1998b). 1. – Map of Falkland Islands King Penguin breeding sites (numbers refer to Table 1). – Falkland Islands King Penguin counts 1995/96 (site numbers refer to Figure 1). The Falkland Islands population census recorded 339 chicks, which equals a total breeding population of approximately 400 breeding pairs (Bingham, 1998b) (Figure 1;Table 1).
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