Yahoo News 12 Feb 09;
CHICAGO (AFP) – Penguins nesting off Argentina's coast are starving because changing ocean patterns have forced their mates to swim 25 miles (40 kilometers) farther than they did a decade ago to find food, researchers said Thursday.
"They also have to swim another 25 miles (40 kilometers) back, and they are swimming that extra 50 miles (80 kilometers) while their mates are back at the breeding grounds, sitting on a nest and starving," said Dee Boersma, a University of Washington biology professor.
Overfishing, pollution and climate change have contributed to the loss of fish stocks near the Punta Tombo animal preserve about 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) south of Buenos Aires, Boersma said.
The colony has shrunk by more than 20 percent to 200,000 breeding pairs from 300,000 pairs 22 years ago.
Penguins are returning to their breeding grounds later in the year and in poorer condition to breed. Once there, the longer trips for food significantly lessens the chances that they will successfully reproduce.
Some of the penguins living have migrated up to 250 miles (400 kilometers) further north to find better breeding grounds.
Those that remain have also had problems with rain flooding their nests, which threatens the survival of eggs and small chicks.
Boersma, who is also director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Penguin Project, will present her findings Friday at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual conference.
Penguins in Peril, Research Shows
livescience.com Yahoo News 13 Feb 09;
Penguins are on the verge of a precipitous decline, one conservation group warns.
A combination of changing weather patterns, overfishing, pollution, and other factors have conspired against the aquatic, flightless birds , according to a long-running study conducted by the Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society.
The study's findings were presented today by University of Washington professor and WCS scientific fellow Dr. P. Dee Boersma at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Chicago.
Boersma, director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Penguin Project, has recently published two papers documenting some of the serious challenges faced by Magellanic penguins at a colony she has studied for more than 25 years at Punta Tombo, a wildlife reserve some 1,000 miles south of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The papers appeared in the February issues of the journals Marine Ecology Progress Series, and Ecological Monographs.
Boersma's data reveal that penguins at Punta Tombo are traveling farther to find food than they did just a decade ago due to changing ocean conditions and overfishing-particularly of anchovies, a favorite penguin food.
This has forced some penguins to attempt to nest outside of protected areas where they often fall prey to predators.
Meanwhile, changing weather patterns have also led to increased instances of heavy rains, which have caused high mortality of penguin chicks in five of the last 25 years.
All told, penguin numbers at Punta Tombo have declined by more than 20 percent in the last 22 years, from 300,000 to just 200,000 breeding pairs, Boersma said.
"Penguins are having trouble with food on their wintering grounds and if that happens they're not going to come back to their breeding grounds," she said. "If we continue to fish down the food chain and take smaller and smaller fish like anchovies, there won't be anything left for penguins and other wildlife that depend on these small fish for food."
Of the world's 17 species of penguins 12 are rapidly declining Boersma added.
Penguins facing longer commute for food: expert
Julie Steenhuysen, Reuters 12 Feb 09;
CHICAGO (Reuters) - A penguin species found in Argentina is under threat because climate change is forcing the birds to swim farther to find food, researchers said on Thursday.
Climate change has displaced fish populations, so Magellanic penguins must swim "an extra 25 miles further from the nest for fish," University of Washington professor Dee Boersma told reporters at the American Association of the Advancement of Science meeting in Chicago.
While that might not sound like much, she said that while the penguins are swimming an extra 50 miles, their mates are sitting on a nest and starving.
"They are racing against their own physiology," Boersma told the meeting.
The penguins, which live on Argentina's Atlantic coast, are also laying their eggs three days later, she said.
"That means their breeding season is really short now and the chance of their chicks leaving at the wrong time, when there is not food out there, is getting greater and greater," she said.
Last summer, Boersma reported that the Punta Tombo colony she tracks about 1,000 miles south of Buenos Aires has fallen by more than 20 percent in the past 22 years, leaving just 200,000 breeding pairs.
She said some younger penguins are now moving their breeding colonies north to be closer to fish, but, in some cases, this is putting them on private, unprotected lands.
Twelve out of 17 penguin species are experiencing rapid population declines, she said.
Boersma, who has tracked Magellanic penguins in their breeding colony for the past 25 years, said they serve as a barometer of the effects of climate change.
"They keep us abreast of what is happening, not only in the ocean, but on land," she said.
"We really have to reduce our impacts," she said. "If we don't, both penguins and humans will suffer."
