Hundreds of little blue penguin corpses appear on this beach

Since early May, hundreds of little blue penguins have been rushed to the northern coast of New Zealand.

All of them are skinny, there are no fat or muscles on their bodies. The large -scale death of Little Blue Penguin also worried and puzzled many local residents.

At first, experts suspected that the death of Little Blue Penguin might be related to toxins in the marine environment, and some people speculated that they had died of some unknown disease. However, with the further deepening of research, experts found that climate change plays an important role behind the death of Little Blue Penguin.

Hundreds of penguin corpses appear on the beach of New Zealand

The penguins are neatly lined into a line, uniformly interlaced, and they open their wings slightly. Their iconic blue smooth feathers are dull because they are covered by sand.

There are 183 penguins here. Last week, their bodies were rushed to Ninety Mile Beach, New Zealand, and local residents collected them to prepare for future investigations.

These penguins are called "Kororā, Little Blue Penguins", which are the smallest penguins in the world, mainly distributed in New Zealand, Australia and other places. They are small in shape, their bodies are slightly stubborn, and they are shaking from the road. dune.

However, the recent death of Little Blue Penguin confused local residents.

On the same week when a large number of small blue penguins were found in the ninety -mile beach, more than 100 small blue penguins were found in the nearby Kaiber Bay. Back to May, nearly 100 little blue penguins were found on the Tocco Beach, New Zealand's Totoris Gulf of New Zealand.

The accurate death number may not only be there. Graeme Taylor, a scientist of the New Zealand Nature Protection Department, said that since May 2022, more than 500 penguins have been rushed to the beach. In fact, this number may be close to 1,000. "It seems unlikely giving an accurate number, mainly because someone buried them after discovering that Little Blue Penguin."

According to the British "Guardian", in the local social media group, people have increasingly anxious anxiety and concerns about discussing these deaths. Are these penguins captured and discarded by fishermen? Is there anything in the water? Does Penguin infected some new disease?

Since local residents have discovered the death penguin on the beach of New Zealand for the first time, natural resource protectionists have been trying to find out the reasons for penguin collective death.

Initially, scientists were worried that there was a new virus or disease that was spreading in the penguin group, so a series of tests were made for penguin corpses. Later, more and more evidence showed that these little blue penguins are likely to be starved to death.

"All corpses are too light weight." Taylor said that Little Blue Penguin's weight should be around 800 grams to 1000 grams, but their weight is almost half reduced, and there is no fat and muscles on their bodies. They cannot dive. In the end, these little blue penguins will die from hunger, or they die too low due to lack of fat warming.

Climate change or penguin indirect "killer"

The questioning has not ended, and scientists are still exploring why Little Lan Penguin is difficult to prey. At this moment, people discovered the role of climate change in it.

According to data from the New Zealand National Institute of Water Resources and Atmospheric Research, it became the hottest year since New Zealand's record in 2021. The temperature is 0.5 ° C to 1.2 ° C higher than the normal level.

In January 2022, Nathanael Melia, a part -time researcher at the New Zealand Institute of Climate Change, told the United States CNN that the recent temperature fluctuations in the waters around New Zealand were as high as 3 ° C.

In addition, the phenomenon of Rana also caused changes in water temperature near New Zealand.

La Nina is a regular ocean and atmospheric phenomenon, referring to the cyclical cooling of the ocean temperature from central equatorial Pacific to the central and eastern parts of the central and eastern parts. Taylor pointed out that the current period of Rana has brought warm seawater to northern New Zealand.

However, the warm seawater increases the difficulty of predation activities for Little Blue Penguin.

Little Blue Penguin eats phoenix and sardines. They can dive to eat fish at 20 meters or 30 meters of seawater, but they are not good at dive deeper. CNN pointed out that the rising temperature of the seawater allows these small fish to move to the cold waters that the little blue penguin cannot reach, so they are difficult to get enough food.

In fact, this is not the first time in New Zealand's death in a large number of birds.

According to Dave Houston, an ecologist at the New Zealand Ministry of Environmental Protection, as early as the 1970s and 1980s, there were large -scale deaths of birds, as many as 5,000 birds died. Compared with past events, it is still a relatively small event.

Although this situation is only part of the natural cycle, Houston also acknowledged that climate change has exacerbated the negative impact.

The main impact is the frequency of similar incidents. Taylor pointed out that before that, the death of birds of such a scale may occur once in ten years, and in the past ten years, at least three large -scale bird deaths have occurred.

The death incident of large -scale small blue penguins this time has not yet ended.The New Zealand Bird Association representative Ian Armitage said the recent storm and high water temperature means that more birds will die, and the incident may continue until winter.The British "Guardian" pointed out that climate change will continue to warm the ocean, and in the end, species such as Little Blue Penguin may be extinct in the North Island of New Zealand."When such incidents occur frequently, Little Lan Penguin really does not have much opportunity to recover slowly from large -scale death incidents and reproduce again." Taylor said.

Source: Beijing News reporter Luan Ruoxi Editor Bai Shuang School pair Wu Xingfa

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