King Penguin

For several years now, Petrofer has been an animal sponsor of the Basel Zoo. The Basel Zoo plays an important role in the conservation of endangered species. Since 2022 Petrofer supports the king penguins of Basel Zoo. You can find more information on our connection with the Basel Zoo Animal Sponsorship.

The king penguins rank among the big penguins and are about 95 cm tall, weighing 15 kg on average. They have striking patches of intense orange on their ears and on the sides of their neck. They live in the Antarctic and Subantarctic. In order to feed, the penguins travel a long way from the coast and dive down as far as 240 m to catch sardines and squid; they can eat up to 20 kg on each foraging trip and store the energy obtained in the form of fat.

King penguins travel to their breeding colony in summer and start laying eggs on flat beaches free from snow and ice, and also inland. The female lays only one egg and this is incubated by both partners for 51-57 days.

King penguins do not build nests but carry their egg on their feet and keep it warm with their special abdominal fold. The young penguins have a coat of down feathers in a uniform brown for about nine months and, shortly before they moult, they look bigger and heavier than their parents. At the age of 10-13 months, the king penguins are independent. The breeding cycle for king penguins lasts 14 to 16 months, which means that a penguin couple can only raise two young penguins over a period of three years.