It occurs in subantarctic waters of the western Pacific and Indian Oceans, as well as around the southern coasts of South America.

In 1743 the English naturalist George Edwards included an illustration and a description of the southern rockhopper penguin in the first volume of his A Natural History of Uncommon Birds.

[4] When in 1758 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the tenth edition, he placed the southern rockhopper penguin with the red-billed tropicbird in the genus Phaethon.

Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Phaethon demersus and cited Edwards' work.

[5] The use of Linnaeus' binomial name was not adopted by later ornithologists, perhaps because he had already used the specific demersa for the African penguin which he placed with the wandering albatross in the genus Diomedea.

[6][7] The southern rockhopper penguin was formally described in 1781 by the German naturalist Johann Reinhold Forster under the binomial name Aptenodytes chrysocome.

Interbreeding with the macaroni penguin has been reported at Heard and Marion Islands, with three hybrids recorded there by a 1987–88 Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition.

[13] It has slate-grey upper parts and has straight, bright yellow eyebrows ending in long yellowish plumes projecting sideways behind a red eye.

[15] These penguins feed on krill, squid, octopus, lantern fish, mollusks, plankton, cuttlefish, and mainly crustaceans.

[16] Their common name refers to the fact that, unlike many other penguins which get around obstacles by sliding on their bellies or by awkward climbing using their flipper-like wings as aid, rockhoppers will try to jump over boulders and across cracks.

Influenced by factors such as sea ice abundance, prey availability, breeding stage, and seasonality, rockhopper penguins must be able to adapt their behavior to fit the current conditions.

[18] Females during the brooding period will follow a much more fixed foraging schedule, leaving and returning to the colony at roughly the same time each day.

If females have low energy levels because they are fasting while provisioning chicks, they may make several short foraging trips instead of one longer one.

[22] With the approval of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA), Drusillas Park in East Sussex holds the studbook for rockhopper penguins in Europe.

[23] The indigenous Yahgan people whose territory in Tierra del Fuego overlaps with its distribution often hunted them by slingshot or dart as a source of food.

Their breeding colonies, namely those around South America, today attract many tourists who enjoy watching the birds' antics.