Penguins wash up in the tropics

[XemaSab]

PENGUINS are washing up on tropical beaches with scientists unsure why the Antarctic birds are heading closer to the equator than ever before.

About 300 penguins have recently been found dead and alive along the coast of the Brazil' s Bahia state, 1200km northeast of Rio de Janeiro, the Associated Press reports.

The area is more renowned as a place to get a tan than it is to spot penguins. Its capital Salvador is closer to the equator than Cairns in northern Queensland and its temperature has hovered around 20 degrees Celsius this month.

"This is unheard of. There have even been reports of penguins washing up as far as Aracaju,'' Adelson Cerqueira Silva of Brazil's environmental agency said, referring to a beachside state capital even closer to the equator.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24105632-1702,00.html

[Dead_Parrot]

1. That's pretty fucked up

I don't what's behind it, but I don't like it. :scared:

[stuntcat]

2. really, everything's normal. Everyone look away. Enjoy your steak, at the mall.

It's just some crazy animals.

(:cry:)

[HamdenRice]

3. Penguins washing up in Brazil was not unheard of before

Not sure why they stray so far north.

There was a hilarious/sad story in the news about 10 years ago. A Brazilian family found a live penguin on the beach and decided to keep it as a pet. Not being too bright, they kept in in their refigerator.

IIRC, animal welfare authorities were called before they managed to kill it and it was given to a Brazilian zoo.

[Dead_Parrot]

4. But not, I'm guessing, in the hundreds.

There is something weird here, beyond forgetting to hang a right at the Falklands.

Uggianaqtuq.

[XemaSab]

5. A new word!

I must have been busy this day:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x49865

[Dead_Parrot]

6. You were probably off doing something nasty...

...with a funnel, a hammer and an elk.
:D

[XemaSab]

7. .

x(

[phantom power]

8. that ain't right.

:toast:

[XemaSab]

10. .

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x165307

[phantom power]

9. Anybody know...

what kind of penguins they were? I read a recent article in American Scientist about the loss of ice on the Antarctic Peninsula, and some species such as Adélie penguins need the ice. Other species seem to do OK without it.



http://www.americanscientist.org/

[XemaSab]

11. Most of the articles identify them as Magellanic Penguins

but some of the photos look more like Chinstrap Penguins or possibly Gentoo Penguins to my ignorant eye. The bill might be a little long though, and juveniles might look very different, with different bills and patterns.

http://www.news.com.au/common/imagedata/0,,6173047,00.jpg

Chinstrap:



Gentoo:



Magellanic:



Then again, some of the birds in this photo clearly didn't get the memo about what Magellanic Penguins are supposed to look like either:



I think the only conclusions I can reach right now is that this field guide may not show all plumages, and the people taking the photos and writing the articles may not know what they're talking about either. :P

Magellanic Penguins (according to my field guide to Southern South America and Antarctica) are expected off the coast of Brazil in the austral winter. Chinstrap and Gentoo penguins would be way out of range.