Rockhopper Penguins

The subject of rockhopper penguins, in relation to the general rockhopper penguin classification, remains to be one that is argued among experts, but this didn’t stop the 2007 CGI-animated feature entitled Surf’s Up in featuring a rockhopper penguin as its main character.

Telling the story of how young Cody Maverick, a rockhopper penguin, managed to be the top surfer in Surf’s Up, the animated feature took on a “mockumentary” approach in delivering its story.

Combining elements of humor, drama, adventure and romance, the family-oriented film delved into the world of penguins, particularly on the challenges they are faced to deal with in their respective circles or penguin groups, with the added zing of the general surfing culture.

Classified into three major types, rockhopper penguins are defined by their capacity to jump over boulders or cracks, thus giving them the rockhopper title. Argued to be a subspecies of three types, rockhopper penguin type variations includes the Western Rockhopper Penguin, the Eastern Rockhopper Penguin and the Southern Rockhopper Penguin.

As a species, rockhopper penguins aren’t the only penguin types known to be a capable of surfing, with different penguin types known to have been successfully trained on the rudiments of surfing. With modified surfboards, different shows and aquariums have had surfing penguins as feature attractions, with some penguins trained to actually do tricks while surfing.

As one of the few of the world’s flightless birds, penguins are more inclined to aquatic environments, typically found in cold climes, but certainly not limited to be found there only.

Popular among children’s stories, penguins remain to be one of the most easily recognizable birds in the planet, with different movies like Surf Up featuring penguins as key characters.

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Rockhopper Penguins

Happy Feet, the 2006 animated film that tells the story of Mumble, a penguin who cannot sing (penguins find their mates through song in the movie) and is ostracized in his colony as a result. In an effort to understand his place in the world, he meets different creatures in Antarctica.

One of the movie’s stars is Lovelace, a dramatic and flamboyant ‘guru’ of a colony of Adelie penguins who wears a six-pack ring around his neck, voiced by the ever lovable Robin Williams. Lovelace is a Rockhopper penguin, a species of penguin that’s a bit smaller than adelies. Rockhoppers are categorized into 3 different subspecies, namely the eastern, northern and southern subspecies.

Interestingly enough, none of these rockhopper penguin species breeds on the Antarctic continent, making Lovelace a bit of a square peg in a round hole in the movie. Rockhopper colonies can be found in Chile, Argentina and the Falkland Islands, as well as in a number of uninhabited islands scattered throughout the south Atlantic, in the southern regions of the Indian Ocean, and even as far as islands off the coast of New Zealand. Rockhoppers are known to live and breed together in huge colonies, which populate rugged terrain near deep oceans and fresh water sources.

The habitats of rockhoppers are a clue of how they got their name. Unlike many penguins that walk and move around obstacles by sliding on their stomachs, rockhoppers will hop over rocks and small cracks. Rochopper penguins mainly feed on fish, crustaceans and squid. Of all the penguin species featured in Happy Feet, rockhoppers are by far the most fragile, greatly affected by human activities, such as overfishing, which has severely lowered populations in many islands. Fishing is not the only problem it faces, as climate change, red tide and egg harvesting have also affected rockhopper populations. As such, the rockhopper penguin is now officially listed as a vulnerable species.

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