Gentoo penguins Pygoselis papua, are slightly larger than Adélie and Chinstrap Penguins, standing 75 to 90 centimetres (37 to 30 inches) tall and weighing 6 kilograms (13 pounds). They can be recognised by their orange beaks and the flecked white marking above their eyes.
Gentoos are found right around the globe between 50° and 60° South, the scattered subantarctic islands, the Antarctic Peninsula being the southern most extent of their breeding range.
The origin of the name Gentoo is uncertain. One source suggests it is derived from the Portuguese “gentio”, a religious term meaning “not of the faith”, or gentile.
“Gentoo“ used to be a popular name in the 19th Century when it was used to describe Hindus in those parts of Anglo Indian society where Muslims predominated. The Hindus wear a white cotton cap and gentoos have a “white cap” - a band of feathers extending between the eyes across the top of the head.
Writer, Dianne Ackerman, suggests that the name Gentoo was the result of a ruse by: a British Museum man, who received a gentoo skin from an Antarctic explorer, thought it was a new species of bird, and decided to hide the information for a while. Later, he went off to Papua New Guinea, and when he returned, he described the bird as if it were one of the local species, naming it after the Gentoo, a religious sect on Papua New Guinea.
The scientific species name, papua originated from his description, lending credence to this explanation. (from The Nature of Penguins. Jonathan Chester)
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