Gentoo Penguins Are Currently Considered a Species of “Least Concern”
Gentoo penguins are protected by the Antarctic Treaty of 1959. Although they’ve faced some threats in recent decades—they were classified as “near threatened” for a number of years by the International Union for Conservation of Nature—the IUCN currently classifies them as “least concern,” which means that they have a stable overall population. The IUCN estimates that there are 774,000 mature gentoo penguins worldwide.
