Exhausted Penguins are washing up on brazil’s tropical beaches
At least 1,000 exhausted birds are washing up on Brazil’s tropical beaches, some are thought to have made a journey of more than 3,000km (1,860 miles) from the cold waters of Patagonia on the southern tip of South America, some of which have died along the way.
Every year penguins make their way north from the colder waters near to Patagonia in search of food.
But the numbers and distances the penguins have travelled this year have amazed the authorities.
No one is really sure what has caused the Brazilian exodus – at the moment, the focus is on saving the penguins rather than explaining how they have ended up in this predicament – but the prevailing theory is that changes in water temperatures have caused confusion on the migratory routes. Fish like cold water and so South American penguins in search of food usually ride the cold Malvinas Current north, gobbling as they go. When they hit the warmer Brazil Current, they know it’s time to stop and head back. Only this year, the Malvinas Current has been warmer than usual, meaning the penguins couldn’t appreciate the difference.
“The penguins didn’t realise when they hit the meeting point so they forged on, and, of course in warmer waters there’s not as much fish, and then suddenly the birds were like ‘Uh-oh! We don’t have any more food’,” explained Ms Ruoppolo. “If they don’t have enough to eat, they lose blubber, then they start to feel cold in the water and that’s when they come ashore to get warm.”
Backing up this theory is the fact that most of the penguins that have got lost are juveniles, embarking on their first migration without a wealth of life experience to fall back on when faced with uncharted waters. However more analysis is needed before making a definitive conclusion. “This is extreme, but we don’t have statistics on the number of penguins and the ocean temperatures,” Jose Marengo, a Brazilian climatologist and a member of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, told the Washington Post. “Some of the most important uncertainties we have are on the oceanic currents.”
Other experts have suggested that melting ice in Antarctica has strengthened the Malvinas Current, which has then spirited away the younger, weaker and more vulnerable penguins. Another theory is that oil spills and over-fishing have combined to deplete the penguins’ fish stocks, forcing them to movefurther afield to feed.
Of the 1,000-plus penguins that have been recovered on land, about a fifth have died of starvation, exhaustion and other illnesses, and experts reckon they are just a fraction of the number of penguins that have perished out at sea.
Brazilian zoos have been inundated with the surviving birds, some of whom who have lost three-quarters of their body weight; are wracked with parasites and diarrhoea; sporting broken flippers, and severely malnourished. By 21 September, Niteroi zoo had received 556 penguins, compared with just seven in the whole of 2007. “We find lots of penguins here with catfish bones in them, which they normally don’t eat,” explained Thiago Muniz, one of the zoo’s vets. “That suggests they’re not finding their normal fish.”
Rescued penguins have been nursed back to health up and down the coast, first with rehydration fluids, before graduating to fishy milkshakes and then finally whole sardines.
Now Hundreds of penguins have been returned to their native territory in the south Atlantic ocean by an air force plane after being found along Brazil’s coast. It is an annual task for the Brazilian air force to help return penguins to their native territory but it seems this year they are coping with higher numbers of their unusual passengers.
Hundreds of penguins were flown this week in a Hercules plane down to the southern tip of Brazil, where they are being released into the ocean – while some are to return on a navy vessel.
Other birds that were exhausted by their long journey are for the time being staying behind to enjoy the hospitable climate of Bahia – a Brazilian state known for its beautiful beaches and sunny weather.