The species is rated as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as its breeding range is restricted to one small island group.

However, Hutton lost his sample at sea whilst drawing the bird before a full speciation could be identified.

Towards the end of his life, Hutton was made president of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union and the New Zealand Institute.

It is difficult to verbally describe these noises, but they range from hisses and explosive cries when threatened to rhythmical braying and trumpeting sounds that can be heard from long distances at sea.

[5] Snares penguins nest in dense colonies under the tree cover of the Olearia forests or on coastal rocks.

[6] To build a nest, the penguins dig up shallow holes in the ground and layer the bottom with grass, leaves, twigs, peat, or pebbles.

If a threat arose, it could quickly wipe out their population because their breeding grounds are confined to a small island group.

Possible threats include the introduction of a new predator, overfishing around the islands that would deplete their food source, increasing water temperatures from global warming driving prey away, and pollution.

[5] The diet of Snares penguins usually consists of krill of the species Nyctiphanes australis, small fish, and cephalopods.

The researchers concluded that the number of fish otoliths and cephalopod beaks indicated the importance of these types of prey to adult penguins while at sea.

After shared incubation of eggs, males leave on two-week-long foraging trips, which has been found to be synchronised with spring plankton blooms, as they are reliable predictors of food sources.

Throughout the chick guard stage, the female is the lone provider of food performing short foraging trips (one to three days).

[4] The breeding season of Snares penguins occurs in the summer of New Zealand, beginning in early September and ending in late January.

Egg-size dimorphism is particularly large in Snares penguins, and the larger egg hatching first only accentuates the sibling size difference.

In altricial birds, such as Snares penguins, egg-size variation and asynchronous hatching are adaptive mechanisms that may lead to brood reduction.

For the first three weeks after hatching, the male guards the chicks from predators while the female searches for food, returning each day to feed her offspring.