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The royal penguin ( Eudyptes schlegeli) is a species of penguin, which can be found only on the sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island and adjacent islands. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classifies the royal penguin as Least Concern. The scientific name commemorates the German zoologist Hermann Schlegel.
They inhabit the waters surrounding Antarctica. Royals look very much like , but have a white face and chin instead of the macaronis' black visage. They are long and weigh . Males are larger than females. Royal penguins breed only on Macquarie Island and adjacent islands. Like other penguins, they spend much of their time at sea, where they are assumed to be Pelagic zone.
It is common for the mother of multiple eggs to abandon their first egg only a day before their second egg arrives. Due to this abandonment the first egg has half the chance of hatching as the second egg that was kept. The causes of this behaviour are still unclear.
During breeding season, royal penguins will hunt in localised areas in conjunction to neighbouring colonies. This implies a cohabitation with other colonies by sectoring off fishing areas for certain colonies, nearly eliminating resource competition.
Historically they were hunted for their oil; between 1870 and 1919 the government of Tasmania issuing licences for hunting them, with an average of 150,000 penguins (both royal and king) being taken each year. At the peak of the industry in 1905, the plant established on Macquarie Island was processing 2000 penguins at a time, with each penguin yielding about half a litre of oil.
Since the end of penguin hunting on Macquarie the numbers have climbed to 850,000 pairs. Before hunting started, there were three million penguins on the island (both royal and king).
Modern threats to the royal penguin include introduced predators such as rats (and formerly cats but they were eradicated from Macquarie Island recently), discarded plastic, pollution, and decreased food supply due to commercial fishing.
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