RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Hundreds of baby penguins swept from the icy shores of Antarctica and Patagonia are washing up dead on tropical beaches here, rescuers and state officials said Friday.
More than 400 penguins, most of them young, have been found dead on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro State in the past two months, according to Eduardo Pimenta, superintendent for the state coastal protection and environment agency in Cabo Frio, a resort city.
While it is common here to find some penguins, dead and alive, swept by strong ocean currents from the Strait of Magellan, Mr. Pimenta said there have been more this year than at any time in recent memory.
Experts are divided over the possible causes. Thiago Muniz, a veterinarian at the Niteroi Zoo, said he believed overfishing has forced the penguins to swim farther from shore to find fish to eat, “and that leaves them more vulnerable to getting caught up in the strong ocean currents.”
Niteroi, the state’s biggest zoo, has received about 100 penguins for treatment this year, many drenched in petroleum, Mr. Muniz said. The Campos oil field, which supplies most of Brazil’s oil, lies offshore.
Mr. Pimenta, the superintendent, suggested pollution was to blame. “Aside from the oil in the Campos basin, the pollution is lowering the animals’ immunity, leaving them vulnerable to funguses and bacteria that attack their lungs,” he said, quoting biologists who work with him.
But Erli Costa, a biologist at Rio de Janeiro’s Federal University, suggested that weather patterns could be involved: “I don’t think the levels of pollution are high enough to affect the birds so quickly.”
He said that most of the penguins turning up are baby birds that have just left the nest and are unable to out-swim the strong ocean currents they encounter while searching for food.
Fonte: NEW YORK TIMES
