The Chatham penguin (''Eudyptes warhami''), also known as the Chatham crested penguin, Chatham Islands penguin, or Warham's penguin, is an extinct species of

crested penguin The term crested penguin is the common name given collectively to species of penguins of the genus ''Eudyptes''. The exact number of species in the genus varies between four and seven depending on the authority, and a Chatham Islands species beca ...

previously

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found els ...

to the

Chatham Islands The Chatham Islands ( ) ( Moriori: ''Rēkohu'', 'Misty Sun'; mi, Wharekauri) are an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean about east of New Zealand's South Island. They are administered as part of New Zealand. The archipelago consists of about t ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

. It is known only from

subfossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

bones and probably became extinct within 150–200 years after

Polynesians Polynesians form an ethnolinguistic group of closely related people who are native to Polynesia (islands in the Polynesian Triangle), an expansive region of Oceania in the Pacific Ocean. They trace their early prehistoric origins to Island Sou ...

arrived in the Chatham Islands around 1500 CE.

Discovery and description

Bones of crested penguins (genus ''

Eudyptes The term crested penguin is the common name given collectively to species of penguins of the genus ''Eudyptes''. The exact number of species in the genus varies between four and seven depending on the authority, and a Chatham Islands species beca ...

'') have been recorded from subfossil deposits on main

Chatham Island Chatham Island ( ) (Moriori: ''Rēkohu'', 'Misty Sun'; mi, Wharekauri) is by far the largest island of the Chatham Islands group, in the south Pacific Ocean off the eastern coast of New Zealand's South Island. It is said to be "halfway bet ...

for years. They had been identified as

Fiordland Fiordland is a geographical region of New Zealand in the south-western corner of the South Island, comprising the westernmost third of Southland. Most of Fiordland is dominated by the steep sides of the snow-capped Southern Alps, deep lakes ...

or erect-crested penguins, but Tennyson and Millener noted in 1994 they differed from both those species, and probably represented a species of crested penguin

to the Chathams. It was referred to as the "Chatham Island crested penguin", but not formally described and named. As part of a study of the recent evolution of numerous penguin species,

bones from Chatham Island and the mainland had mitochondrial DNA fully extracted, sequenced, and compared to other species of ''Eudyptes''. The Chatham bones differed sufficiently in their DNA to support the penguin's identity as a truly distinct species, and it was formally described in 2019 and named ''E. warhami'', after

John Warham John Warham (11 October 1919 – 12 May 2010) was an Australian and New Zealand photographer and ornithologist notable for his research on seabirds, especially petrels. Warham was born in Halifax, Yorkshire, in England, and educated at King Ed ...

, a pioneering researcher in penguin biology. Based on a comparison of mitochondrial genomes, this species diverged from its closest relative, the erect-crested penguin of the

Antipodes Islands The Antipodes Islands ( Maōri: Moutere Mahue; "Abandoned island") are inhospitable and uninhabited volcanic islands in subantarctic waters to the south of – and territorially part of – New Zealand. The 21 km2 archipelago lies 860 ...

, between 1.1 and 2.5 million years ago. This corresponds to the emergence of the Chatham Islands from the sea about 3 million years ago.

Range

The Chatham penguin was endemic to the Chatham Islands. Bones of the Chatham penguin have been identified from various subfossil and archaeological sites on mainland New Zealand, including the

Wairarapa The Wairarapa (; ), a geographical region of New Zealand, lies in the south-eastern corner of the North Island, east of metropolitan Wellington and south-west of the Hawke's Bay Region. It is lightly populated, having several rural service t ...

Banks Peninsula Banks Peninsula is a peninsula of volcanic origin on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It has an area of approximately and encompasses two large harbours and many smaller bays and coves. The South Island's largest city, ...

, Marlborough, and Paekakariki areas. These likely represent stray birds from the Chatham islands arriving on the mainland, not breeding populations. Similarly, the

erect-crested penguin The erect-crested penguin (''Eudyptes sclateri'') is a penguin endemic to the New Zealand region and only breeds on the Bounty and Antipodes Islands. It has black upper parts, white underparts and a yellow eye stripe and crest. It spends the wi ...

was among the subfossil ''Eudyptes'' bones from the Chatham Islands, which also likely represent strays.

Extinction

The Chatham Islands were settled by

around 1500 CE, and the Chatham penguin was probably hunted to extinction within 150–200 years along with many other bird species and one species of sea lion. It was almost certainly extinct before Europeans arrived in the Chatham Islands. There has been a suggestion, however, the species persisted as recently as the late

19th century The 19th (nineteenth) century began on 1 January 1801 ( MDCCCI), and ended on 31 December 1900 ( MCM). The 19th century was the ninth century of the 2nd millennium. The 19th century was characterized by vast social upheaval. Slavery was abolis ...

, because a

from the Chathams is recorded as being kept captive for several weeks around 1871 or 1872. Its species was noted as "''Eudyptes pachyrhynchus''", the modern scientific name for the

Fiordland penguin The Fiordland penguin (''Eudyptes pachyrhynchus''), also known as the Fiordland crested penguin (in Māori, ''tawaki'' or pokotiwha), is a crested penguin species endemic to New Zealand. It currently breeds along the south-western coasts of N ...

. At the time, the name could also refer to the

Snares penguin The Snares penguin (''Eudyptes robustus''), also known as the Snares crested penguin and the Snares Islands penguin, is a penguin from New Zealand. The species breeds on the Snares Islands, a group of islands off the southern coast of the South ...

(''E. robustus'') and the

(''E. sclateri''). Crested penguin species are in fact regular, possibly even annual, visitors to the Chatham Islands. At least three species are recorded from there: Snares penguins,

s, and a member of the

rockhopper penguin The rockhopper penguins are three closely related taxa of crested penguins that have been traditionally treated as a single species and are sometimes split into three species. Not all experts agree on the classification of these penguins. Some ...

group. The captured bird was likely one of these three.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3206559 warhami Extinct penguins Extinct birds of the Chatham Islands Late Quaternary prehistoric birds Bird extinctions since 1500 Birds described in 2019 Species made extinct by human activities