A small percentage of King Penguins in a variety of locations around the Island are suffering from disease, possibly avian pox.
Only two affected birds were seen amongst the many thousands at St Andrews Bay, but reports have been received of others at the other main colony sites such as Salisbury Plain and Gold Harbour, and afflicted birds have been seen locally in Cumberland Bay. The affected birds have protruding and obvious lesions. Vets in the Falklands have seen photographs of affected birds and think it may be an outbreak of avian pox, but no samples have yet been taken to confirm the identity of the disease. Penguin biologists are hopeful that the afflicted animals can survive the infection.
Tour ships were asked to be especially vigilant when overseeing their bio-security when moving from one site to another to minimize the risk of human activity spreading the disease.
There are now 11 king penguins nesting at Penguin River, three times more than have ever tried to nest at once there before. By the end of the month three tiny chicks had hatched. The penguins were being kept company by other moulting kings and two moulting chinstrap penguins. Three more chinstrap penguins are moulting on the track close to Grytviken. One has mountaineering instincts and can be seen teetering on a tiny rock ledge well up the cliff with a cascade of moulted feathers below.
A very rare melanistic king penguin was spotted at St Andrews Bay. The penguin has none of the usual white plumage, indeed these sections are perversely darker black than the sections of plumage that are usually described as black in this species.
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