Thousands Upon Thousands of Penguins Covered in Oil & Killed Over the Last Decade, but Why?…

This is really sad, thousands upon thousands of penguins have been getting covered in oil and/or starving off the coast of Argentine over the past 10 years or more. And no one is sure yet why (or where the oil is coming from)….

oil covered penguin

TreeHugger recently had an extremely disturbing piece on mass penguin deaths occurring year after year off the coast of Argentina. Every year (for the past decade, at least), hundreds or thousands of penguins wash up on the shores of Argentina covered in oil. Most of the time, no one seems to have a clue as to how they got covered in oil. The only guesses people venture (often biologists) is that there was an oil spill somewhere.

But where? And why every single year?

And how can they be so significant that they kill thousands upon thousands of penguins yet are not seen/reported by humans?

Hundreds of starving or oiled penguins have already been sent to animal care facilities this year in order to help them (if possible) get back on their feet and in the water. Unfortunately, there’s still no clear source of the problem. But some seem quite committed to finding out what is going on.

“With the latest mass-deaths and strandings of Magellanic penguins in south Brazil, the nation’s environmental policing agency, in association with a center of marine studies (Ceclimar), are vowing to investigate the source of the oil found on the birds’ feathers,” Stephen Messenger of TreeHugger writes.

Hopefully they will be able to identify the problem, and hopefully those in power will have the will to address the problem once it is identified.

Check out the TreeHugger piece for reports of penguins covered in oil year after year from 2001 to 2011: Dead Penguins Washing Ashore With Disturbing Regularity

For some not-so-depressing stories about penguins, check out:

  1. Baby Penguin Scared to Go Back into Wild {VIDEO}
  2. Injured Penguin Learning to Walk Again {VIDEO}
  3. Little Penguin Laughing Hysterically? {Super Cute Video}

Photo via elisfanclub

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