Penguin species

There are 18 species of penguin, and every one of them lives in the Southern Hemisphere.¹ Only a handful are polar birds: the emperor and the Adélie are the two that make the Antarctic continent their true home, while chinstrap, gentoo and macaroni penguins breed on the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.²⁰ The rest live on subantarctic islands and along the coasts of South America, southern Africa, Australia and New Zealand, and one, the Galápagos penguin, lives on the equator.¹²⁰ This page lists all 18, then shows which you can realistically see on an Antarctic, South Georgia, Falklands or Ross Sea voyage.

How many species of penguins are there?

Eighteen, according to both the Australian Antarctic Division and BirdLife International, the authority for birds on the IUCN Red List.¹³²²¹ You will also see 17 in older material, including a 2017 British Antarctic Survey leaflet, which does not list its 17.²⁰ The likely difference is the rockhopper: BirdLife's factsheets treat the northern and southern rockhopper as separate species only from their 2008 assessments, and the Australian Antarctic Division's poster shows both.⁸⁹¹ That is our reading of the sources; we follow the newer count of 18. It could change again: BirdLife notes that the macaroni shows little genetic difference from the royal penguin, and that the gentoo splits into at least three distinct genetic groups, with both flagged for a review of their status.⁷⁶

What are the 18 species of penguins?

By genus there are six types: two Aptenodytes (emperor and king), three Pygoscelis (Adélie, chinstrap and gentoo), seven crested penguins in Eudyptes, the yellow-eyed (Megadyptes), the little penguin (Eudyptula) and four banded penguins in Spheniscus.³²¹ The table runs from the penguins of Antarctica and the subantarctic, which polar trips visit, to those of warmer coasts, which they do not.

Read the size column with care, because no single source measures all 18 the same way. "Tall" is standing height, from the British Antarctic Survey for the six Antarctic and subantarctic species and from Falklands Conservation for the Magellanic. "Long" is BirdLife's identification size for the other eleven, which it labels as length for the northern rockhopper and which runs longer than standing height: Falklands Conservation gives the Magellanic as 24 to 26 in (61 to 66 cm) tall but 26 to 28 in (65 to 72 cm) long.²⁰²²⁹

Status is the category on each species' BirdLife factsheet, except for the emperor. Its Endangered assessment, announced in April 2026, is due on the published Red List in the version 2026-2 update, which the IUCN has scheduled for November 26, 2026; until then the factsheet still shows Near Threatened.³³³⁴²

What are the 7 types of penguins in Antarctica?

Strictly, five breed in Antarctica: the emperor and Adélie on the continent's coasts, and the chinstrap, gentoo and macaroni on the northern Antarctic Peninsula.²⁰ The usual list of seven adds two species that Antarctic voyages meet on the way: the king, which breeds on South Georgia, and the southern rockhopper, which breeds in the Falklands.³⁸ By the same logic the Magellanic, which also breeds in the Falklands, would make eight.²²

Apart from the emperor, the macaroni is the hardest of the five to find on the Peninsula itself: the British Antarctic Survey counts a single rookery there, against more than a million pairs on South Georgia.²⁰²³ Across the whole Antarctic region, the British Antarctic Survey puts the total at about 20 million breeding pairs of penguins.²⁰

Which penguins will you see on an Antarctica cruise?

It depends on the route more than the month. A standard trip from Ushuaia to the Antarctic Peninsula is built around three species, gentoo, chinstrap and Adélie; adding the Falklands and South Georgia brings king, southern rockhopper and Magellanic penguins, and takes you past the macaroni's biggest South Georgia colonies.²⁷²³

On a Ross Sea voyage, the island stops do most of the work. Ponant's January 25, 2027 voyage from Dunedin on Le Soléal lands on Enderby Island in the Auckland Islands, a stronghold of the yellow-eyed penguin, and, if time and weather allow, on Australia's Macquarie Island, where royal, king, gentoo and rockhopper penguins breed. At the Snares, home to about 35,000 Snares penguins, landing is prohibited; Ponant offers Zodiac cruising there if time and weather permit, and says no wildlife sighting can be guaranteed.²⁶

Which trip shows you the most penguin species?

A voyage that combines the Falklands, South Georgia and the Peninsula. Quark Expeditions' Penguins of the Far South itinerary names Magellanic, gentoo and southern rockhopper penguins in the Falklands, king penguins on South Georgia, and chinstrap, Adélie and gentoo penguins on the Peninsula: six species, with South Georgia's macaroni colonies a possible seventh.²⁷²³ The 20-day trip from Ushuaia on Ocean Explorer starts at $28,595 per person, Quark's brochure fare for a triple suite on the October 25, 2026 departure, with a hotel night in Ushuaia but no flights, as listed on October 14, 2026.²⁸²⁷

Oceanwide Expeditions' versions run 19 to 23 days and start at $14,850 to $17,400 for one berth in a shared four-berth cabin, but every one of those berths for 2026-27 was waitlisted or on request when we checked on October 14, 2026. The one open place below that was a men-only berth in a triple on Plancius's 19-day trip from November 23, 2026, at $12,575. Neither Oceanwide fare includes flights.²⁹ Compare those with shorter trips in our Antarctica trip cost guide.

If you only have time for the Peninsula, go between November and February. Adélie and chinstrap eggs are laid in mid to late November and hatch in late December and early January; Adélie chicks are at sea by mid-February, while chinstrap chicks fledge about two months after hatching.²⁰

What is the biggest penguin species, and the smallest?

The emperor is the biggest, at about 45 in (115 cm) tall and 84 lb (38 kg), followed by the king at 37 in (94 cm) and 35 lb (16 kg).²⁰ The smallest is the little penguin of Australia and New Zealand, about 12 to 16 in (30 to 40 cm) long and, by the British Antarctic Survey's figure, about 2.4 lb (1.1 kg).¹⁵²⁰ The four smaller Antarctic species, gentoo, Adélie, chinstrap and macaroni, all stand 28 to 30 in (71 to 75 cm), and the British Antarctic Survey notes that each species' distinctive markings are on the head and neck, so look there to tell them apart.²⁰

What is the most common penguin, and which are most endangered?

On BirdLife's latest figures the macaroni is the most numerous, with an estimated 12 million mature birds, ahead of the Adélie at about 10 million and the chinstrap at about 8 million.⁷⁴⁵ Those figures are not equally fresh: the macaroni estimate dates from 1998 and the species is listed as declining, the Adélie count is from 2017 and rising, and the chinstrap figure is from 1999 and falling.⁷⁴⁵

The most threatened is the African penguin, Critically Endangered since 2024, with about 19,800 mature birds counted in 2023.¹⁸ The Galápagos penguin has the smallest population, which BirdLife puts at about 1,200 mature birds in 2007, and the yellow-eyed penguin is down to 2,600 to 3,000.¹⁹¹⁴ The emperor was assessed as Endangered in 2026 because of sea-ice loss.²¹³³ Counting that assessment, 10 of the 18 species are threatened: one Critically Endangered, five Endangered and four Vulnerable, with the Fiordland penguin Near Threatened. Until the Red List's 2026-2 update, BirdLife's factsheets show nine, with the emperor still Near Threatened.²³⁴

What are the fuzzy penguins called?

Most likely king penguin chicks. Their woolly down looks so unlike the adults that 19th-century scientific books listed them as a separate species, the "woolly penguin".²⁰ Because a king takes 10 to 13 months to raise a chick, a colony can hold year-old chicks next to birds still sitting on eggs.²⁰ Kings are on South Georgia all year, so a visit at any point in the cruise season should find chicks of some age.²³²⁰

How close can you get to penguins in Antarctica?

At least 16 ft (5 m) on land, under the Antarctic Treaty's general guidelines for visitors, and farther where a species or site guideline asks for it.³⁰ The same rules say to stay outside the edge of a colony, never block a penguin's path between the sea and its nest, give animals right of way, and stop or back off if a bird changes its behavior.³⁰

Why are there no penguins in the Arctic?

Because they cannot cross the tropics. The British Antarctic Survey explains that warm equatorial water acts as a barrier, that even the penguins living close to the equator stick to cooler water coming from the south, and that in the Arctic the penguin's niche is already filled by the puffin, which needs to fly to escape land predators.²⁰ The Arctic's big polar animal is the polar bear, so you cannot see penguins and polar bears on the same trip.