Mystery looms around the death of at least 2,000 penguins on the eastern coast of Uruguay. With authorities ruling out avian influenza, the death the penguins is yet to be known.
The penguin deaths have occurred in the last 10 days. The penguins were, reportedly, found dead in Atlantic Ocean and were carried by currents to Uruguayan shores.
Carmen Leizagoyen, head of the Environment Ministry's department of fauna, told AFP that the Magellanic penguins, mostly juveniles, died in the Atlantic Ocean and were carried by currents to Uruguayan shores.
All samples were tested negative for avian influenza, she said.
"This is mortality in the water. Ninety percent are young specimens that arrive without fat reserves and with empty stomachs," Leizagoyen was quoted by AFP.
Magellanic penguins mostly remain on the continental shelf in Argentina. These penguins migrate north in search of food and warm water during winters. Studies have shown them even in reaching the coast of Espirito Santo in Brazil.
It is not normal for these many penguins to die, said Leizagoyen. Earlier similar incident took place in Brazil last year for “undetermined reasons”.
Over 500 dead penguins were spotted along six miles of Atlantic coast by Hector Caymaris, director of Laguna de Rocha protected area.
"From 1990s and 2000s we began to see animals with a lack of food. The resource is over exploited," Richard Tesore, of the NGO SOS Marine Wildlife Rescue told AFP.
A subtropical cyclone in the Atlantic, which hit southeastern Brazil in mid-July, probably caused the weakest animals to die from the inclement weather, he added.
Tesore also sad that dead petrels, albatrosses, seagulls, sea turtles and sea liones were found dead on the beaches of Maldonado.
