Penguin populations in severe decline

Penguin populations have plummeted at a key breeding colony in Argentina, further fuelling concerns over the impact that climate change and pollution are having on the flightless marine birds.

The Punta Tombo site, the world's largest breeding colony of Magellanic penguins, has seen a 22 per cent decline in population in the last two decades, according to a study published in the journal Bioscience.

Dee Boersma, a University of Washington professor who led the research, said the plight of the penguins is an indicator of big changes in the world’s oceans due to human activities.

“Penguins are in trouble,” Boersma said. “They certainly are canaries in the coal mine.”

The professor, who has been observing the colony for the past 25 years, says that the decline appears to have begun in the early 1980s after the population peaked at approximately 400,000 breeding pairs in the mid 1970s.

Today’s total is only half that.

The world’s warming climate is only one of the penguins’ problems, she said. Factors such as oil pollution, depletion of fish stocks and coastal development in breeding grounds are also threatening their survival.

“Penguins are sentinels of the marine environment, and by observing and studying them, researchers can learn about the rate and nature of changes occurring in the southern oceans. As ocean samplers, penguins provide insights into patterns of regional ocean productivity and long-term climate variation,” Boersma wrote in the study.

The world has 17 species of penguin, spread across Antarctica, Africa, South America, Australia, New Zealand and the Falkland Islands. Many species have been experiencing population declines mirroring that at the Punta Tombo colony, Boersma said.

The number of Galapagos penguins, the only species with a range that inches into the northern hemisphere, has slipped to around 2,500 birds, about a quarter of its total in the 1970s.

Anton Seimon of the Wildlife Conservation Society, which backed Boersma’s work, said the findings illustrated the disruption that people were causing to penguins’ ecosystems and raised the spectre of extinctions.

“These disruptions introduce instability into what had been somewhat stable populations. That instability means we don’t really know what’s going to be happening in the future. In many instances it does signify declines that may result, in the most drastic case, in extinctions,” Seimon said.

Comments

[pickin teeth]

The whole story is malarky. Penguins are unpopular because they taste so fishy.

[Duscany]

When environmentalists complain of global warming's effect on the planet they never mention over-population. If there were half as many people on the globe we wouldn't be in the fix we are in. I think some liberals are afraid to condemn over-population for fear they will be considered anti-immigrant. This is nuts. There are just too many people on spaceship earth and if you don't think that's true try driving across Los Angeles at rush hour. It doesn't matter if they are old line WASPs or newly arrived illegal immigrants. Too many is too many.

[rapa]

Dear Adrian,

If you would recognize how human activities have caused to the animals in the wild such as penguins, you would not be amused. Human population has been elbowing many other species to extinction or close to extinction and it is not a matter of adaptation or not as they do not have air-conditioning nor to swim away from pollution. They only have one habitat, be it Antarctica or Galapagos and once their habitat is destroyed, they would be very vulnerable.

We need a sustainable Earth and we only have one Earth. Forget about migrating to outerspace, which only happens in science fiction. If humans do not respect their environment or the global powers strive to grow big economically by burning more fossil fuels, very soon, many of our wild animals would go extinct and the only solution is to have a sustainable growth but humans are greedy and to be the superpowers is the dream of many nations so that our Earth would sooner or later be in jeopardy. Once our surrounding animals and plants die, humans would not be able to live too. Adaptation is not the answer. Perhaps we really need a Messiah for our World.

Rapa

[Adrian]

Why do people think trivialising scientific data is amusing? And why do people who read The Times (and should know better) still say stupid things?
Not all penguins live in Antarctica; the penguins illustrated in the photo are in fact Adelie penguins (which do happen to live on Antarctic islands) not Magellanic; climate change is affecting sea currents and thus the penguins' food sources, their decline has nothing to do with the temperature of the areas they come ashore to breed in.
If most human beings showed the sort of dedication to their offspring that penguins do, or were as perfectly adapted to their environment, we wouldn't be facing a climate change crisis.

[ive got issues]

yer mum is more interesting than this!!

[James Callaghan]

I am not surprised that the penguin died. He used to smoke cigarettes using a long holder, obviously not long enough. Burgess Meredith the actors name was, a fine actor.
I intend to worry about 'bird-flu' when my feathers start falling out...

[Dodgy Geezer]

Sorry, I can't understand this.

Penguins live in the Antarctic. I understand that all the figures show that the Antarctic is experiencing its coldest period in the last 20 years, with a record extent of Ice.

And you claim that 'climate change' is responsible for penguin deaths. Could it be that they are dying of cold?

[StillSceptable]

Rubbish - see http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/03/goddard_polar_ice/ for the truth about ice caps