Rockhopper penguin numbers tumble in South Atlantic

[leftchick]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061222/sc_nm/environment_penguins_dc



A Marineland Park employee holds five Rockhopper penguin which were born at the marine zoo in Antibes, on the French Riviera, in this January 9, 2003 file photo. Rockhopper penguins, a type featured in the movie 'Happy Feet', have suffered a mysterious 30 percent decline in numbers over five years in their South Atlantic stronghold, conservationists said on Friday. (Eric Gail

OSLO (Reuters) - Rockhopper penguins, a type featured in the movie "Happy Feet," have suffered a mysterious 30 percent decline in numbers over five years in their South Atlantic stronghold, conservationists said on Friday.

The number of pairs of the small yellow-crested penguins in Britain's Falkland Islands fell to 210,418 pairs in 2005-06 from 298,496 in 2000, perhaps because of climate change, a survey by Falklands Conservation said.

Figures from 1932 suggested that there were 1.5 million pairs at the time, giving an 85 percent fall in the species' main habitat, it said. Smaller colonies live in Chile, Argentina and on southern islands.

"The decline of the rockhopper penguin in the Falkland Islands suggests a massive shift in the ecology of the southern Ocean, perhaps linked to climate change," said Geoff Hilton, a biologist at Britain's Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). "We don't really know what is going wrong."

[hatrack]

1. Anyone tell Michael Medved yet?

I'm sure he'd inform us that it's all a radical plot to feed soy to schoolkids, undermine capitalism and turn preachers G-A-Y.

:eyes:

[Lurking Dem]

2. Why do they insist on referring to

these declines as "mysterious"? WTF is "mysterious" about it?

[redqueen]

3. No kidding...

this was all pretty much forseeable... or foreguessable anyway, at least

[leftchick]

4. I agree

"perhaps it is due to climate change"????? PERHAPS??? :grr: