New penguin species named for first time in over 100 years

Researchers have identified a brand new penguin, species - Pygoscelis kerguelensis also known as the southeastern gentoo.

It lives on the remote Kerguelen Islands, around 1,200 miles north of Antarctica.

They look almost identical to other gentoo penguins and until recently experts thought they were all the same species.

But researchers studying their genes now believe there are actually four separate species - northern, southern, southeastern and eastern - who all evolved differently.

The southeastern gentoo penguin was previously unknown to science, making it the first new penguin species described in more than 100 years.

The last one to be discovered was the Northern rockhopper penguin (Eudyptes moseleyi) which was named in 1921.

The discovery was made by an international team of penguin experts from the United States and Chile, with the findings published in the journal Communications Biology.

The researchers also found that three previously recognised subspecies of gentoo penguins are genetically different enough to be categorised as separate species.

Questions have been asked about the gentoo penguin species for decades, and this new research is the first one to look at almost the entire range of the gentoo penguin around the globe.

The decision was based on the study of 64 individuals from 10 breeding colonies, living across the Pacific Ocean, from Antarctica across to South America.

Rauri Bowie, professor at UC Berkeley said: "There's probably no species of penguin... more debated than the gentoo penguin.

"For over 100 years, it's been controversial as to how many species or how many subspecies there are."

According to the researchers, the different species developed over the past 300,000 to 500,000 years.

Gentoos differ from other penguin species mainly due to their wide-ranging diet, and will eat almost anything they can catch in the water.

This makes it easier for them to survive than penguins like emperors and Adelies, with more specific diets, who can struggle to find food.

Scientists argue that this is why gentoos evolved differently.

Because they don't travel far from their breeding colony, and nest in the same place year after year, different populations developed who adapted to their specific regions.