How to see penguins in the wild

At the time of writing Taylor Swift was to be found just off Isla Leones in Patagonia, traveling at a respectable speed of 2.2km/hour. But what business, you might wonder, would international pop megastar Taylor Swift have in the chilly waters of the South Atlantic Ocean?

Well, this Taylor Swift is a penguin. A boy penguin, as a matter of fact. And his migration habits are being tracked, using satellite, by the Global Penguin Society, which is dedicated to the conservation of the world’s 18 penguin species, from the largest (the Emperors of Antarctica) to the smallest (the little penguins of New Zealand). Researchers who have been tagging the penguins have also been given responsibility for naming them, and it appears not all of them have been taking that aspect of the job seriously.

If you want to see penguins in the wild, it’s not difficult. You just need to be in the Southern Hemisphere, where almost all of them live. Our small ship expedition cruises in places such as Antarctica will regularly feature shore excursions to remote penguin colonies, while in places like South Africa they are much more accessible – you can easily visit them with one of our self drive vacations.

You can’t just walk into the middle of a penguin colony, though – you must follow strict rules to protect the birds and their habitat. And to be honest, you probably wouldn’t want to spend too much time in a penguin colony. They’re as noisy as a factory floor, and absolutely reek of guano. But while we may find the pong off-putting, penguins use it to identify their own colonies and kin, which helps to prevent inbreeding. Of course, they’re not the only creature with a highly developed sense of smell – my son can detect an open bag of M&Ms no matter how far at the back of the cupboard I’ve hidden them.

It’s another thing entirely to see penguins swimming. What they lack in grace on land as they waddle clumsily around, they amply make up for in the water, as they dive, twist and swoop with astonishing agility. In some parts of the world, such as the Galapagos Islands (the only place north of the equator where penguins live in the wild) you can snorkel or scuba dive with them, and watch their underwater antics with amazement.

Read on to learn the best places to see penguins in the wild, and how to do it.

There are no fewer than seven penguin species in Antarctica. Responsible Travel’s own Abbie Redman visited the white continent and found the penguins there highly entertaining: “They come in huge colonies and if they're not bumping each other over they are falling down the slopes themselves!”

Huge numbers of Adélie penguins cluster in the volcanic South Orkney Islands, and they also nest, along with chinstrap penguins, on Penguin Island in the South Shetlands. Some 120,000 breeding pairs of gentoo penguins live in the Falkland Islands, many of them at Volunteer Point, which is also home to king penguins, with their distinctive yellow markings. And macaroni penguins, instantly recognisable for their bright yellow crests, are found in large groups on South Georgia.

Antarctica is also the only place in the world where you can see emperor penguins in the wild. The largest (over one metre tall) and heaviest penguin species, they prefer to nest away from the coast or on floating ice, so finding them can be tricky – though some of our expedition cruises give it a good shot. But if you do manage to see emperors, you may also witness the thrilling sight of them ‘tobogganing’ along the ice on their bellies, or ‘torpedoing’ out of the water. With sea temperatures that can fall as low as -2°C, you’d be in a hurry to get out as well.

Antarctica’s penguins have no natural predators on land, but in the water they are hunted by leopard seals and orcas. And as they are dependent for their survival on ice and fish stocks, the warming climate poses a grave threat. The best way to see penguins in Antarctica is on one of our small ship cruises. These nimble boats can reach areas that larger vessels cannot, and they are crewed by experts in Antarctic wildlife.

Little penguins are the smallest species of penguins. In Australia you can see them in many locations around the south of the country such as Phillip Island in Victoria, where elevated boardwalks allow visitors to explore the penguins’ habitat without damaging it. On Lion Island, in Broken Bay, New South Wales, there is a colony of little penguins that can be seen from a boat. As the name suggests, the island is also home to sea lions.

Perhaps the best way to see penguins in Australia is in Tasmania, with one of our self drive vacations. There is a colony of little penguins on Godrey’s Beach in Stanley, and at night red lights, which don’t disturb or disorient the birds, illuminate the sands. You can see the penguins as they emerge from fishing in the Bass Strait and make for their burrows. September to March tends to be the best time to see the penguins in large numbers.

The Galapagos penguin is the only species found in the wild north of the equator, and while you would expect them to be unsuited to the warm climate, they have adapted admirably. They spend much of their time in the sea, the Humboldt Current bringing the cold water they prefer, and they lay their eggs in caves and crevasses, out of the sun’s glare.

Galapagos penguins are sadly endangered, with just 2,000 of them to be found on islands including Fernandina, Isabela and Bartolome. The best way to see penguins in the Galapagos Islands is on one of our nature cruises here. They can be found year-round but are most visible during nesting season from May to December. Galapagos penguins are usually at their most active around September – on our vacations you can often snorkel and scuba dive alongside them as they dart happily through the water.

New Zealand is home to the korora, otherwise known as the fairy penguin, or the little blue penguin – the smallest of all the penguins. They can be found hopping around places like the Marlborough Sounds, Oamaru, Dunedin and Stewart Island. There are rare hoiho, or yellow-eyed penguins, on the Otago Peninsula and around the Catlins. Self drive tours are an excellent way to visit different penguin sites.

Tawakis, Fjordland crested penguins, are known to migrate up to 2,500km from their breeding sites on the South Island to feed – almost half the distance to Antarctica. Scientists can find no logical reason for this, as there’s plenty of suitable fish for them to eat much closer to the coast. Their behaviour seems to be entirely pointless. Which, when you think about it, is rather lovely.

The Patagonia region is home to several species of penguin, including Magellanic penguins (some colonies on the Argentinean side number hundreds of thousands of pairs). There are also Humboldts and gentoos, as well as southern rockhoppers, a bolshie breed who nest on top of sea cliffs. There are king penguins too, in Tierra del Fuego, the only colony of them outside the Sub-Antarctic Islands.

RIB (rigid inflatable hulled) boats allow you to venture out to places like Isla Martillo in Ushuaia and Useless Bay on Tierra del Fuego island where you can explore penguin colonies via roped-off walkways. Other places can only be viewed from hides, or from the water.

Travel around the beautiful Garden Route and Winelands of South Africa, and you can see the only penguin species native to Africa, the Cape or African penguin. They’re also known as jackass penguins for their braying calls.

You can see penguins at several popular stop-offs on our self drive tours including Boulders Beach and Betty’s Bay, while the Robben, Dassen and Dyer islands all have colonies. On the mainland, the penguins are known to occasionally wander into areas where people live, or sunbathe, so it’s vital not to touch them, even if they steal your towel.