The penguins finished their annual moult and have now left the colony. They have set off on their winter migration and will now be out in the open ocean swimming up the coast of Argentina. Their final destination is Brazil, but it will take them several weeks to get there. They are not in any rush. Just like an ocean cruise, the idea is for Promises to enjoy the journey as much as the destination.
The coastline of Patagonia is very beautiful, and there are lots of fish to be found whenever the penguins get hungry. Now that there is no longer a need to travel to and from the nest each day, Promises can relax out at sea, catching fish and swimming leisurely northwards a bit at a time.
As you can imagine, the penguins were very hungry after finishing their annual moult, during which they were not able to feed. Now they have full stomachs again.
The weather is lovely, the sea is nice and calm, and the gloomy winter days are now behind Promises for a few weeks.
A few days ago Promises would have passed by the largest Magellanic penguin colony in the world, at Punta Tombo in Argentina. There are about 400,000 penguins living there, but now most of them have already left the colony on route to Brazil, just like Promises. I attach a photo of the beach which is the main entrance to the colony. The wooden structure built on the headland over the beach is a look-out point for tourists to watch the penguins. There are usually lots of tourists there, but the colony has been closed to the public since March because of the coronavirus lock-down that is in place in Argentina.
The penguins in the photo are Magellanic penguins just like Promises. The penguins on the beach are finishing their moult and will be leaving Punta Tombo in the next few days. All the Magellanic penguins in Argentina, Chile and the Falklands Islands all group together off the coast of Brazil at this time of year.
North of Punta Tombo there are a few smaller penguin colonies around the Peninsula Valdez, still in Argentina. After that there are no more penguin colonies in the Atlantic Ocean. Only the Pacific Ocean has penguin colonies further north; Humboldt penguins in Chile and Peru, and Galapagos penguins in the Galapagos Islands (Ecuador). These two species only live in the Pacific Ocean, and being nearer to the equator these two species of penguin do not migrate.
Despite the fact that the penguins migrate northwards up the coast of Uruguay and Brazil, neither of these countries have colonies of breeding penguins. The penguins only visit these countries and never make nests there. The penguins remain entirely out at sea, so there are no colonies on land. When the penguins arrive at their destination, there will be about 3 million penguins spread out along the coast of Brazil.
These 3 million penguins do not come ashore at all during their winter migration.
Indeed many people living in Brazil are not even aware that they have so many penguins a few miles off shore. The penguins have no need to come ashore, because they have everything they need out at sea. Penguins only come ashore to do things that they cannot do at sea, like lay eggs, raise chicks and moult. The only penguins that come ashore in Brazil are penguins that get oiled, or which for other reasons become ill.
The Atlantic coast of South America has a lot of shipping traffic, so several penguins do get oiled each year. This oil rarely comes from accidental oil spills.
Most oil contamination at sea comes from the deliberate discharge of bilge water.
Bilge water is used to keep ships lower in the water when they have no cargo, and has to be discharged at port before taking on cargo. However discharging bilge water at port where it is filtered takes many hours, and ships are often charged for the use of port facilities, so many ships simply discharge this dirty bilge water into the sea on their approach to the port to save time and money.
Brazil has several penguin rescue stations along its coast which clean oiled penguins and help them to return to the wild.
Back home in the colony we are now able to take a break from the fieldwork, and concentrate on report writing and publications. We have just published a peer-reviewed research paper in one of Chile's most prestigious scientific journals, the "Anales del Instituto de la Patagonia" which is published by the University of Magellanes.
The publication summarizes our penguin research over the last 20 years in both Argentina and Chile.
This publication gives a detailed insight into the research that your penguin adoption fee funds. None of this work would be possible without our supporters.
You can see the article and download it by clicking "PDF" on the left-hand side of the page, underneath where it says "Descargas" at the following link:
http://www.analesdelinstitutodelapatagonia.cl/index.php/analespatagonia/article/view/928
The web site is in Spanish, so to make it easier for you I have attached a copy of the article to this email. You are free to circulate it, link it to your Facebook, or whatever you like. It is in the public domain so can be printed and circulated freely. The article shows how your adoption fee is spent and the work that is being done to protect the penguins. Despite being a scientific report it is not difficult to understand.
The article includes a map showing the location of the study site where Promises and our other adopted penguins live. There are also a couple of photos showing the problems penguins face on Magdalena Island as a result of climate change.
You might like the part that explains how we count thousands of penguins, using grains of rice as an example. It also explains how penguins are safer and raise more chicks in the presence of tourists. How often have you heard that wildlife does better in the presence of people?
I will write to you again in a few weeks time with more news about Promises in Brazil.
Kind regards, Mike
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