King Penguin

The King penguin is native to South America; they usually live in southern Argentina and Chile, but can also travel as far as the Antarctic, South Africa or Australia and New Zealand.

It is the second largest of all penguin species. Although easily confused with the Emperor penguin, the King penguin is more colourful and has a longer, thinner beak.

King penguins are very social birds and live in colonies with populations of up to 39,000 breeding pairs. They have a lower rate of monogamy than smaller penguin species in that, if both mates do not arrive at the colony at the same time, a new mate may be chosen. They don't build nests, both the egg and then the chick will remain on the parent's legs under a pouch of skin on the adult's belly. The female lays a single egg and incubation, for which both parents take turns, lasts approximately 54 days. The chick reaches independence at 12-16 months and the parents will not breed again until after this time. This means that they usually reproduce twice every 3 years.

The Selwo Marina group is part of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria's (EAZA) European Endangered Species Conservation Programme (EEP).