The sad story of the penguins who migrate from Argentina to Brazil and die on the Uruguayan coast

More than one hundred Patagonian penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus), which during the winter usually migrate from Argentina to Brazil, appeared or dead or very weak on the Uruguayan coast this week.

He said to EFE For the director of the NGO S.O.S Rescate of Fauna Marina, Richard Tesore, it is normal for these specimens to cross the coasts of Uruguay, but they usually arrive between May and July. "What's going on is that this year they've gone a little earlier than normal. They started appearing in the area of ​​Maldonado and Rocha and, later, because of the storm, we found them from Montevideo to Rocha, "said the expert.

In this sense, Tesore estimated that, for calls received by the organization, "more than 100" chicks arrived in the country during the last week, of which 30 were received by their center: only 14 survived.

"Most of them arrived in a state of hypothermia, anemic and so weak that they could not stand it and many died in the first hours to get to the coast, "he explained, explaining that many of the penguins they had attended had changed plumage before the time.

Regarding the reasons they arrive ahead of the country's coastlines, Tesore said that this could be due to both. temperature change overpopulation of penguins, forcing young birds to leave the colony in advance. "Therefore, they leave with less weight, less prepared for the trip, which in some cases is around eight thousand kilometers," he said.

Regarding the first theory, the director of the NGO explained that "there are many variations in the climate of these animals," because they came "rigorously" during the winter, they also arrive in summer.