Hundreds of washed up penguins were deployed at original locations

Oct 8, 2008 12:17 GMT  ·  By

Recently, about 370 penguins that mysteriously got cast adrift on northeastern Brazil's equatorial beaches have been carried back to their originating places on a Brazilian southern beach. According to a statement of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the young Magellanic were flown and released in the ocean waters of a southern beach. This is the largest action of this kind ever performed on the South American continent, as Brazil authorities undergo such deployments in Antarctica or Patagonia cold waters on a yearly basis.

These specimens are only a part of the 1.300 penguins that have been washed up on the northeastern coasts of Brazil in the recent few months. A large number, about 20%, consisting of about 400 mostly young, were found dead on the Rio de Janeiro beaches, while the vast remaining percentage were in too poor condition to be transported back to their originating places. Penguins being cast adrift in such a massive amount is unprecedented, and its causes still unknown. Researchers and rescuers state that they might have been driven off by hunger, looking for fish too far from the shores, as they possibly got carried away by the strong flows of warm water in the oceanic currents which they were totally unable to outswim.

Most of the dead ones were also covered with petroleum that leaked from the nearby Campos oil field, which supplies the largest part of the Brazilian oil. “Aside from the oil in the Campos basin, the pollution is lowering the animals' immunity, leaving them vulnerable to fungi and bacteria that attack their lungs,” said Eduardo Pimenta, the superintendent for the state's coastal protection and environment agency in Cabo Frio. But Erli Costa, a biologist from Rio de Janeiro's Federal University, thinks weather patterns can also be blamed, “I don't think the levels of pollution are high enough to affect the birds so quickly. I think instead we're seeing more young and sick penguins because of global warming, which affects ocean currents and creates more cyclones, making the seas rougher”.

Magellanic penguins usually breed in southern Argentina and in Chile and migrate north to Brazil from March to September. As they accidentally got too far this time, they were carried back by a C130 turboprop plane belonging to the air force, after having been taken care of at an animal rehabilitation facility.