Royal Penguins: Macquarie Island’s Resilient Residents
Friday, 2 January 2026
In the subantarctic region of the Southern Ocean, roughly halfway between New Zealand and Antarctica lies Macquarie Island. Although it is closer to New Zealand, Australia, in fact, owns the island. Not that the royal penguin cares – it has called the island its (only) home for tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands of years, relying on its rocky shores and tussock-covered slopes for breeding, nesting, and raising its chicks in one of the most remote and windswept environments on Earth. As such, it is the only place on Earth (apart from two small islets about 30 miles away where around 1,000 breed) that the royal penguin mates and reproduces. Image Credit
So, why the name? This is almost always the first question that people ask when they first come across the royal penguin. We’re not really sure when they acquired their common name, but it is likely that it was at around the same time that they were first recorded by European sealers in 1810 (and that was an oh dear moment for the species, to say the very least). The sealers were no doubt struck by the bird’s bright yellow crest, which resembles a crown or royal ornament. They were also struck (with no doubt at all), by the opportunity the royal penguin presented to make some money. More about that sad chapter later.