Rockhopper Penguin Numbers In Freefall Across Southern Ocean - Longterm Loss May Be In Millions

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My Feet are getting Happier by the minute - how 'bout you?!?

HOLLYWOOD has turned them into the cartoon stars of the film Happy Feet, but the real life story of the rockhopper penguin is not such a happy tale, scientists have discovered. Millions of the birds are disappearing in a "sinister and astonishing" phenomenon that is baffling biologists.

In just six years their numbers have fallen from 600,000 to 420,000 in the Falkland Islands - one of its few remaining strongholds - according to the latest survey by Falklands Conservation. The decline equates to a drop of about 30 per cent, although the Falklands population is thought to have dipped by about 85 per cent since 1932, when there were more than 1.5 million birds.

It is thought that global warming may be behind its decline, as warmer seas are less productive and the penguins may not be able to find enough food to eat, but researchers admit they have not yet established the reasons. Dr Geoff Hilton, an RSPB biologist who has studied the species, said: "It's actually quite rare in conservation that we don't know why a species is declining.

"All around the world from New Zealand to the Falklands there used to be all these huge colonies. Populations separated by 1,000km of sea are all crashing. It's an astonishing decline, the populations have just crashed over the last few decades and we really don't know why. It's quite sinister, we have got millions of penguins just disappearing."

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http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1905342006