Dead penguins keep washing up on New Zealand’s beaches with no end in sight

by Siddhi Ashar, Jun 18
1 minute read

Locals have found atleast 452 Kororā, otherwise known as little blue penguins washed up on the North Island in New Zealand over the last two months. The usual suspects – wild dogs or vehicles do not factor in as they appear to be in various stages of decomposition signaling the possibility of a mass death event.

So what?

The reason seems far grimmer with experts believing the birds are starving to death due to global heating threatening their food chains. The lack of food could have also impacted their body temperatures and many seemed to have no fat or muscle to keep them strong.

As climate changes begins to tip the balance, such mass death events could escalate and threaten whole populations of not just penguins but other species susceptible to rising temperatures across the globe. The landslide impacts of climate events could mean that species will not survive to breed and replenish the following seasons and continue to disappear if interventions are not introduced soon.

Sources

Dead Penguins Keep Washing Up on New Zealand’s Beaches. Here’s Why. https://www.vice.com/en/article/z34eee/dead-penguins-wash-up-new-zealand

Details

Location: New Zealand
Other Tags: Biodiversity Loss Ecosystems Extinction Extreme Weather Global warming

by Siddhi Ashar Spotted 51 signals

With a background in international studies and filmmaking, Siddhi works with the Futures Centre team to creatively push our current imaginaries and create more positive visions of futures rooted in equity. Her works centers around challenging common narratives and working agilely to bring forth more representative ones. Through her role at the Futures Centre, she focuses on the answering the question, how can better climate communication and visioning help stakeholders work together and act intently, empathetically and urgently?

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