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Migration and Vagrancy
Little is known about post-breeding dispersal or migration. Adults stay close to the permanent ice for most of their lives. Juveniles equipped with satellite transmitters, however, have been tracked as far north as the Polar Front. Vagrants have turned up on the South Shetland Islands, Tierra del Fuego, the Falklands, South Sandwich Islands, Kerguelen Island, Heard Island, and New Zealand.
Conservation and Status
Like the other penguins that breed exclusively in Antarctica, Emperor penguins are also categorised as ‘lower risk’. Perhaps it is the isolation, but they too have a stable population that is not globally threatened. The population is estimated to be about 218,000 pairs.