Their stomachs held not a scrap of food and their bodies were weak. Researchers examining the dead penguins were shocked. For the past ten days the Atlantic coast has been a grim sight, with penguin carcasses washing up one after another on Uruguay's east coast. Most are young penguins, including chicks. The initial belief is that they died of starvation and weakness.

Penguins often die like this from avian influenza, but that is not the cause this time: no disease was found in the dead birds.

Dr Carmen Leizagoyen, head of the fauna department at Uruguay's environment ministry, said most of the penguins had no food in their stomachs. Examination showed they had not died of disease but had starved slowly day after day.

More than 2,000 dead penguins have been recovered from the Uruguayan coast so far. They are Magellanic penguins, and 90 percent are young birds and chicks.

Magellanic penguins live in southern Argentina and migrate north each year in search of food and warmer weather, sometimes reaching the coast of Brazil.

Environmentalists blame excessive and illegal fishing for the rising deaths.

Richard Tesore of the NGO SOS Marine Wildlife Rescue said a lack of food among animals has been apparent since the 1990s and 2000s, and resources are being overused. He believes a cyclone that formed in the Atlantic in mid-July and struck south-eastern Brazil probably killed the weakened birds.

Besides penguins, the bodies of petrels, albatrosses, gulls, sea turtles and other animals have recently been found on the beaches of Maldonado, Tesore said.

Citing AFP and NDTV.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.