Organism Niche Fast Facts:

• Erect-Crested Penguins are an endemic speices to New Zealand and breed on the Bounty and Antipodes Islands and other surrounding biomes which include intertidal zones and oceanic zones.

• Island biogeography shows that small breeding populations were sighted from Campbell Island to the Auckland Islands. In the 1940s, a pair was found on the Otago Peninsula of the New Zealand mainland. Some pairs have been found in the Falkland Islands and are occasional vagrants to Argentina, Antarctica, and Australia.

• Erect-Crested Penguins live largely at sea during their pre-molt period which lasts from February to March and during the winter months of March to August.

• They live in large colonies on rocky terrain, which is an essential part of their ecosystem for breeding.

• In some locations, Erect-Crested Penguins breed in mono-specific colonies. In other areas, they live sympatrically with Southern Rockhopper penguins.

• On the Bounty Islands, they breed in mixed colonies with albatross.

• Population density is decreasing.