Penguins Disappearing From Southern Hemisphere 218
The Scotsman is running a piece looking at the mysterious disappearance of penguins from all around the world. A biologist who studies the rockhopper penguin characterizes the population crash as 'sinister', as scientists are still baffled as to why almost 30% of the birds have vanished. From the article: "Grant Munro, the director of Falklands Conservation, said there were fears that rockhoppers might become extinct. 'If the present situation were to carry on then it's not a particularly great forecast. It doesn't look like they are suddenly going to start increasing in numbers ... In the Falklands, they are part of everyday life. If you head down to the beach you are going to see penguins.'"
Penguins only come from the Southern Hemisphere (Score:3, Informative)
Range of Penguin Species (Score:3, Informative)
You can see Penguins in Chile, Argentina, Namibia, South Africa and the Falklands to name just a few places. Oh, I forgot those nice islands near the Equator called the Galapagos.
It is more likely that over fishing is the cause of the decline of the Rockhoppers in the Falklands. If there is no suitable food supply then the population will crash.
An alternative theory could be that this is cyclical variation in population just like Lemmings.
At the moment, it is too early to say.
Anyway, I'm off to the Falklands next month and hope to see some live TUX.
Re:Lets not jump to conclusions (Score:2, Informative)
Re:The RAF has a base in the falklands... (Score:5, Informative)
That's highly unlikely as the RAF operates very strict flight regulations concerning the areas around the Falklands that are used by nesting penguins. Especially so during the breeding season when the noise of an overflying jet may startle a potential parent into letting the egg balanced on its feet to keep it warm come into contact with the frozen ground, almost certainly killing the chick within. More than one RAF pilot has had their flying status revoked and found themselves on the next transport plane home after being caught too close to the penguin colonies.
For those of you old enough to remember the TV advert, the RAF most certainly does not "P-P-P-Pickle a Penguin".
Re:Close but no cigar (Score:3, Informative)
It's pretty clear scientists have no idea why this is happening, but everyone loves to say "global warming" with little to no evidence, and this is no different.
The gist of these articles is that similar to bears hibernating, these penguins molt and cannot swim anymore for short periods. Prior to this, they must fatten themselves up and when that doesn't happen, they can starve.
The same factors that spell a bad year for fishing in these areas can also spell starvation for these animals. Obviously, some argue that the fishing itself is a contributing factor, but environmental issues like currents seems to be the larger issue. If it was entirely tied to climate, you wouldn't see spikes in the deaths of these birds as noted in 1986, 2002, this year, etc. Also, we have very little data on earlier years, apparently.
Re:Counting methods... (Score:1, Informative)
barring actually going everywhere and penning them all and then counting them out of the pens, you could say anything you like about the total numbers...
So we have to count EVERYTHING for statistics to work now? I wish you'd come along and told us this before hand, a lot of people waste a lot of time doing science based on sampling. With this nugget of insight, all of us can just shrug our shoulders and say "Well, we shouldn't pay any attention to these numbers, after all, it's not like we can count them all!"
*rolleyes*