Penguin_Update
As you know we had a hard time a couple of years ago when the Province was about to put a tourist trail over about 200 nests right before the eggs hatched. In the end, the Director of Conservation was fired by the Governor of the Province, the road within the reserve closed to traffic, and the new trails removed. It was a real victory for conservation and the penguins, but we continue to face mounting pressures. The dirt road was paved to within about 25 km of Punta Tombo. The challenge we face will be the growing number of visitors to Punta Tombo. A management plan for Punta Tombo has been adopted by the Province, and there is a strong interest in protecting the penguins. New bridges were built along the tourist trail to let penguins cross the trail to their nests while people walk in the reserve. Penguins are arriving at Tombo to begin the breeding season and have been eating squid, so food is in the area. I hope we can continue to mitigate the increasing demand to see penguins, and I will be at Tombo in early October to see some of the arriving birds.
On September 12th, many high-level Argentine officials visited Punta Tombo where they announced plans to allocate almost $5 million for the Tombo Interpretation Center. Unfortunately, many officials view Tombo simply as a development site which presents challenges to preserving the penguins’ habitat. While in Punta Tombo, the President of Argentina put on a penguin project cap. Our project hat with penguins of global sentinels made most of the front pages of the newspapers. We are thrilled the President of Argentina is wearing our symbol of penguin conservation and have included the picture for you to see.
Regards,
Dee
P. Dee Boersma, Ph.D
Wadsworth Endowed Chair in Conservation Science
Department of Biology
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195
wiinterrr's note: Dr. Boersma is, as far as I'm concerned, the patron saint of the Magellanic penguin. Her work, that has spanned the course of a lifetime, has been nothing short of awe-inspiring. She has provided break-through scientific papers that provide the world audience with solid support for conservation of these beautiful birds. Students of avian science need only look as far as their nearest database, and the public in general, will find reports of her work printed in such prestigious online sites, as Science Daily and the BBC.
If you would like to subscribe to her database and keep up with her work, please go to:
Subscription home page
... and follow directions. Be the first to know, by doing so. :)
And thank you Dr. Boersma. You ARE my personal hero.
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