Climbing, belly-sliding, diving with friends and a few thousand naps: one penguin’s day, pieced together from what scientists have measured.
By Chinstrap Collective
The chinstrap penguin is a small Antarctic penguin named for the thin black band under its chin. It stands about 72 cm (28 in) tall, eats mostly krill, lives 16 to 20 years and breeds mainly on the Antarctic Peninsula and nearby islands. About 3.42 million pairs breed in 375 colonies.
Chinstrap penguin facts at a glance
- Height: about 72 centimetres (28 inches) (Animal Diversity Web).
- Weight: 3.5 to 5.5 kilograms, about 8 to 12 pounds (Australian Antarctic Division).
- Diet: about 95% krill (Animal Diversity Web).
- Lifespan: 16 to 20 years (AAD).
- Population: about 3.42 million breeding pairs in 375 colonies (Strycker and colleagues, 2020).
- Status: Least Concern, but numbers are thought to be declining significantly (AAD).
Picture a commute that starts with a scramble over rocks, turns into a belly-slide, and ends with a dive into the sea. For a chinstrap penguin, that is just getting to work.
Meet our namesake. The chinstrap penguin is named for the narrow band of black feathers that runs from ear to ear, just below its chin and cheeks (Australian Antarctic Division). It stands about 72 centimetres (28 inches) tall (Animal Diversity Web) and weighs 3.5 to 5.5 kilograms, about 8 to 12 pounds (AAD).
Where do chinstrap penguins live?
Chinstrap penguins breed mainly on the Antarctic Peninsula and on islands in the South Atlantic Ocean (Australian Antarctic Division). The biggest colony of all is on Zavodovski Island, in the South Sandwich Islands, where over one million chinstraps breed (British Antarctic Survey, 2024).
They come ashore to breed. From March to early May, chinstraps leave their colonies and move north of the pack ice for the winter (AAD).
A day in the life of a chinstrap
No single study follows one chinstrap through every hour. But put together what scientists have measured, and a day in the breeding season looks something like this.
The commute: climb, jump, slide
Getting between the nest and the sea takes some athletics. Chinstraps climb using all four limbs and can jump large distances to reach footholds (Australian Antarctic Division).
And sometimes they don’t walk at all. Chinstraps often toboggan on land, lying on their stomachs and pushing themselves along with their feet and flippers (AAD). Anyone who has ever wished they could commute by sled will understand.
The office: underwater
On land, a chinstrap climbs and slides. At sea, it flies. It catches its prey by pursuit-diving, using its flippers to “fly” through the water (Australian Antarctic Division), and like other penguins it steers with its feet and tail as a rudder (AAD).
It generally feeds at depths of less than 40 metres (about 130 feet), diving deeper in the daytime than at night. It forages day and night, but its diving effort is concentrated near midnight and noon (AAD). Lunch, in other words, might be at noon. Or at midnight.
Lunch is krill
What is it hunting? Mostly krill: about 95% of a chinstrap’s diet (Animal Diversity Web). If you have never met a krill, picture small animals swimming in swarms so dense that a single cubic metre of water can hold 30,000 of them (Australian Antarctic Division). Krill hold up the whole neighbourhood: most of Antarctica’s large animals, from seals and whales to seabirds, fish and squid, depend on them directly or indirectly (AAD).
And chinstraps may not like to eat alone. In 2021, NOAA Fisheries reported that three chinstraps, two of them wearing cameras, spent more than nine hours swimming, diving and feeding within sight of each other. They made 85 dives together, mostly eating krill (NOAA Fisheries). NOAA’s headline put it best: penguins may prefer dining with friends.
Home to the nest
Back at the colony wait a ring of stones and a partner. Before the eggs hatch, a “day” at the nest can stretch a long way: chinstrap parents share 33 to 36 days of incubation, in shifts that start at 5 to 10 days and get shorter as hatching approaches (Australian Antarctic Division). On the nest, sleep comes in tiny pieces: nesting chinstraps nod off more than 10,000 times a day, for about four seconds each (Libourel and colleagues, 2023). We wrote a whole Field Note about those naps.
Chinstrap penguin chicks
Once the eggs hatch, there are usually two mouths to feed: chinstrap parents generally raise two chicks each summer. The chicks arrive in silver to light grey down, and a second, darker grey down appears at two to three weeks (AAD). They stay in the nest for 20 to 30 days, then join group nurseries called crèches, and they go to sea at about seven to eight weeks old (Animal Diversity Web; AAD).
How long do chinstrap penguins live?
When summer ends, the colonies empty. From March to early May, chinstraps leave and move north of the pack ice for the winter (Australian Antarctic Division). Each summer the cycle starts again, for a long time: chinstraps can live to be 16 to 20 years old (AAD).
How many chinstrap penguins are there?
Our chinstrap is far from alone. A 2020 global count, using satellite, drone and ground surveys, found about 3.42 million breeding pairs in 375 colonies (Strycker and colleagues, Scientific Reports). One island, Zavodovski, holds over one million breeding chinstraps, which the British Antarctic Survey describes as the largest penguin colony in the world (BAS, 2024).
The numbers also carry a warning. Chinstraps are listed as Least Concern, but the Australian Antarctic Division says recent evidence suggests their numbers are declining significantly due to reductions in krill, their main food (AAD; BirdLife).
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Chinstrap penguin FAQ
How tall is a chinstrap penguin?
About 72 centimetres (28 inches), and 3.5 to 5.5 kilograms (ADW; AAD).
What do chinstrap penguins eat?
Mostly krill, about 95% of their diet (Animal Diversity Web), caught on dives generally less than 40 metres deep (AAD).
How long do chinstrap penguins live?
16 to 20 years (Australian Antarctic Division).
How many chinstrap penguins are there?
About 3.42 million breeding pairs in 375 colonies, by a 2020 global count (Strycker and colleagues).
Are chinstrap penguins endangered?
No: they are listed as Least Concern. But recent evidence suggests their numbers are declining significantly, due to reductions in krill, their main food (AAD).
Why are they called chinstrap penguins?
For the narrow band of black feathers that runs from ear to ear, just below the chin and cheeks (AAD).
More Field Notes: How do penguins sleep? 10,000 naps a day · Why do penguins steal pebbles? · How long is Antarctica dark?
Sources
- Australian Antarctic Division, Chinstrap penguin: where they breed, the name, weight, lifespan, climbing, tobogganing, diving and diet, incubation, chicks, winter, decline.
- Coulson (2001), Pygoscelis antarcticus, Animal Diversity Web: height, share of krill in the diet, chicks in the nest and in crèches.
- Australian Antarctic Division, Penguins: steering with feet and tail.
- Australian Antarctic Division, Antarctic krill: swarm density; the animals that depend on krill.
- NOAA Fisheries (2021), New data show that penguins in Antarctica may prefer dining with friends to dining alone.
- Libourel and colleagues (2023), Science 382:1026: naps.
- Strycker and colleagues (2020), Scientific Reports: 3.42 million breeding pairs in 375 colonies.
- British Antarctic Survey (2024), Scientists count penguins on remote sub-Antarctic island: Zavodovski Island, the largest penguin colony, in the South Sandwich Islands.
- BirdLife International, List of penguin species: Least Concern.