Delivery time2023-07-25 04:23
Mostly ‘malnutrition’… Environmental group “because of overfishing of anchovies” vs government “complex causes”
Penguin carcass washed up on Uruguay coast
(La Juanita[우루과이] AFP = Yonhap News) On the 20th (local time), a penguin body lies on the beach in La Juanita, Maldonado, Uruguay. 2023.7.25
(Mexico City = Yonhap News) Correspondent Lee Jae-rim = Recently, thousands of dead penguins washed up on the coast of Uruguay in South America, and the government began investigating the cause.
According to Uruguay’s daily newspapers El Observador and La Diaria on the 24th (local time), the Uruguay Environmental Authority announced that about 2,000 penguins were found dead on the 200 km southeast coast from Montevideo, the capital, to Rocha, for 10 days in the middle of this month.
The National Institute of Biodiversity and Ecology, under the Ministry of Environment of Uruguay, explained that the carcass found on the southeast coast was a Magellanic penguin.
Gerardo Evia National Institute of Ecology said, “Magellan penguins from this region have a habit of nesting in Patagonia in southern Argentina and then moving to southern or central Brazil, which is a little warmer in winter.”
It is common for hundreds of thousands of birds to migrate to the northern coast in search of food around July and August, when the weather in the southern hemisphere drops significantly.
However, not a small number of individuals die from malnutrition due to not being able to consume food in time while moving, and the Uruguayan government believes that the bodies found on the coast are also the same case.
Director Ebia added, “It is not an exceptional phenomenon to find 1,000 to 2,000 carcass specimens of Magellanic penguins migrating in the Atlantic Ocean.”
In fact, the bodies identified this time also had significantly thinned fat layers, El Observador reported, citing information from the Uruguay Ecological Center.
In addition to this, the Ecology Institute believes that the strong storm observed in the Atlantic Ocean last week had an adverse effect on the penguins, which were at a crossroads between life and death.
Some raised concerns about avian influenza, but the National Institute of Ecology of Uruguay added that all carcass samples showed a ‘negative’ reaction as a result of checking for avian influenza infection.
However, environmental groups claim that nearly 5,000 animals, including fish, birds and turtles, in addition to penguins, have recently been found dead, raising concerns about the destruction of the food ecosystem due to illegal fishing.
Richard Tesore, head of the SOS Marine Animal Rescue Team, said in an interview with El Observador, “Animals, especially penguins, are mostly observed to be dead in a very thin and fragile state.
“Those factors can cause problems for the penguins, but they shouldn’t be seen as the decisive factor,” said Ebbia, director of the Uruguay Ecology Center.
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2023/07/25 04:23 Send
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2023-07-24 19:23:22
