Shifting Baselines

There are 19 species of seabirds that spend a portion of their lives in the Galapagos Islands and one seems a very unlikely resident. The Galapagos penguin, Speniscus mendiculus, is the only penguin to live as far north as the equator.

Speniscus mendiculus is most likely a descendant of the Humboldt penguin, brought north to the islands on the Humboldt current that travels from Antarctic waters up South America's west coast. The Humboldt Current converges with two other warmer currents making Galapagos the epicenter of the underwater confluence.

The third smallest of the penguin family, the Galapagos penguin is a streamlined, performance bird reaching speeds up to 35km/hr underwater. And its size has not gotten in the way of vanity. Speniscus mendiculus spends as much as three hours each day preening to ensure that its warm-weather adapted reduced plumage is in top condition.

Courtship follows the primping and during this time period the penguins have been heard making raucous, donkey-like calls. The vociferousness lends itself to the selection of a mate--a serious choice since the Galapagos penguin, like many seabirds, chooses a mate for life.

Galapagos penguins breed only on west coast of Isabela and on most of Fernandina's coast. With no soft peat to make burrows for themselves, they have taken to living in natural caves and crevices in the coastal lava. They can lay up to 3 eggs in 15 months but one parent must stay with the egg while other leaves for several days to feed.

I just saw these delightful little birds while diving at Cousins rock yesterday. But it seems their future is in peril. A viability workshop conducted a few years ago by the Darwin Initiative and the World Conservation Union (IUCN) found that the Galapagos penguin was under serious threat, with the probability of extinction in the next century estimated at about 30 percent, mostly due to climate change.

Galapagos penguins, like many marine speices, could fall victim to global climate change.