The breeding season is from spring to autumn. Sexual maturity is attained at the age of six years. Pygoscelis papua are the least abundant of penguin species with a total breeding population of approximately 314,000 pairs. Behavior Throughout the year adults can be found on breeding islands indicating that they are relatively sedentary. They exhibit a strong diurnal pattern in their diving behaviour.
Deep diving begins near sunrise and finishes at sunset.
Diving at night is less common and is often shallow. Dive lengths of 7 minutes have been recorded. Dive depths range from 40 to 210 m. They swim at 1.04 metres per second and have a maximum potential foraging range of about 26 km for single day trips. They tend to forage within 14 km of the colony with a mean range of 5.4 km.