In the past 10 days, 2,000 penguins have been found dead on the coast of eastern Uruguay; the cause, which does not seem to be avian influenza, is still unknown, according to authorities.
According to Carmen Leizagoyen, director of the Department of Flora at the Environment Ministry, the majority of the Magellanic penguins, which were juveniles, perished in the Atlantic Ocean and were brought by currents to Uruguayan coastlines.
Uruguayan shore
“This is aquatic mortality. She emphasized that all samples tested for avian influenza came back negative. Ninety percent are young specimens who arrive on an empty stomach and without fat reserves.
Southern Argentina is home to Magellanic penguin nests. They travel north during the southern hemisphere winter in search of food and warmer waters; they even make it as far as the coast of the Brazilian state of Espirito Santo.
- 2,000 penguins dead in Uruguay; cause unknown; not avian influenza.
- Magellanic penguins migrate north in winter for food, and warmer waters.
- Animals likely died from the Atlantic cyclone’s adverse weather in Brazil.
Leizagoyen stated, mentioning that a comparable die-off occurred last year in Brazil for unknown reasons. There is a normal amount of death, but not these numbers,” he said.
Along six miles (10 kilometers) of the Atlantic coast, more than 500 dead penguins, according to Hector Caymaris, head of the Laguna de Rocha protected area.
Environmentalists blame overfishing and illicit fishing for the rise in fatalities of Magellanic penguins. “Animals were beginning to grow hungry, just as they had in the 1990s and 2000s. NGOs like SOS Marine Wildlife Rescue argue that the resource has been overexploited.
The weakest animals most likely perished from the adverse weather brought on by a subtropical cyclone in the Atlantic that struck southeast Brazil in mid-July, he noted.
Tesoro reported seeing dead petrels, albatrosses, seagulls, sea turtles, and sea lions on the beaches of Maldonado, a department east of the nation’s capital Montevideo, in addition to penguins.
