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Some years ago, researchers in Ushuaia, the southernmost city of Argentina, observed some unexpected winter visitors. Martillo Island, a speck of land in the Beagle Channel, regularly attracts tourist boats owing to its photogenic colonies of magellanic and gentoo penguins. Visit today, however, and you may just be lucky enough to spot an outsider: a king penguin, staring out across the channel from the islandâs pebble beach, head and shoulders taller than the gentoos and about twice the size of the magellanics.
A handful of king penguins have been caught by camera traps on the islands, often hanging out in the gentoo nesting grounds. King penguins can be found elsewhere in Patagonia, but hadnât been spotted on this island before. How they got there, where they came from, or even how many there are, is a mystery. âWe donât know anything about king penguins at Martillo Island,â says Sami Dodino, a penguinologist at Argentinian scientific institute CADIC.