Gentoo penguins are expanding southward as climate changes, but the welfare of individuals in established colonies faces challenges from fishing pressure, pollution, and tourism.
Gentoo penguin chicks in colonies where adult fish prey has been depleted by commercial fishing experience nutritional stress as adults make longer foraging trips returning with less food. Oiled adults that lose waterproofing die from hypothermia or starvation before shore-based cleaning can occur. Tourism disturbance at accessible Peninsula colonies causes nest abandonment and chick exposure to predators during critical brooding periods. Plastic ingestion from marine debris causes gastrointestinal obstruction and starvation in individual penguins.