First New Penguin Species in a Century Named

Genetic evidence has revealed a previously unknown gentoo penguin species on the remote Kerguelen Islands, the first new penguin species named in over 100 years.

An international team led by researchers in Chile and at the University of California, Berkeley has identified a brand-new gentoo penguin species on the Kerguelen Islands — known in French as the Desolation Islands — nearly 2,000 miles from any permanently inhabited landmass. It is the first new penguin species named in more than 100 years, and the findings were published in *Communications Biology*. The remote habitat may explain how it went unnoticed for so long.

The genetic evidence shows that what scientists long treated as one widespread gentoo species is really four separate species. The newly recognized southeastern gentoo, *Pygoscelis kerguelensis*, is a cryptic species — apart from subtle differences in body size and vocalizations it closely resembles other gentoos, but its genome is clearly distinct. Three populations previously classed as subspecies are now elevated to full species, including the Antarctic-dwelling southern gentoo, *Pygoscelis ellsworthi*.

The team built a consensus from whole-genome sequences of 64 penguins collected from 10 breeding colonies — the first sampling covering nearly the entire gentoo range — and compared coloration, calls, breeding schedules, diet and feeding behavior. First author Daly Noll of the University of Chile led the analysis of thousands of single nucleotide polymorphisms. Co-senior author Rauri Bowie of UC Berkeley says no penguin's taxonomy has been more debated, with the controversy running for over 100 years.

The four gentoo species are estimated to have diverged within the past 300,000 to 500,000 years, shaped by geographic isolation and the Antarctic Polar Front, a sharp boundary in ocean temperature and salinity that restricts marine movement. The gentoo's flexible diet — fish, krill, squid and cuttlefish — lets it forage close to its nesting colonies and return to the same sites yearly, so island populations gradually adapted to local conditions and split apart genetically.

The newly named *P. kerguelensis* may face an uncertain future: under a moderate climate change scenario, climate models suggest the island-dwelling sub-Antarctic species could lose suitable habitat on all the islands where they currently live, often with few or no nearby replacement islands. The Antarctic southern gentoo could even expand its range, but co-senior author Juliana Vianna of Universidad Andrés Bello says it is the sub-Antarctic gentoos of greatest concern, and she urges conservation institutions across the many involved countries to act.

The penguin reveal lands just days after scientists identified the tilcayo (*Leopardus tilcayo*), the first brand-new wild cat species described since 1923, from Bolivia's Yungas cloud forest — a three-to-four-pound spotted feline whose story began when a family surrendered a 'kitten' to the Senda Verde Wildlife Sanctuary. Together the discoveries underline that genetics keeps redrawing the map of familiar animals, with splitting broad species into more localized ones sharpening conservation priorities.