From a kingdom of 2 million “people”, the number of penguins on Ile aux Cochons has mysteriously declined by 88% in 30 years.
Near the south pole of the Earth is an island in the Indian Ocean, under the French name of Ile aux Cochons.
It really is a giant penguin kingdom. And it is not wrong to call the kingdom the Isle of Pigs, because the penguin that lives there is the king penguin.
Kingdom of the penguins on the Isle of Pigs.
However, this giant kingdom has collapsed on a terrifying scale. In 1980, around 2 million penguins lived here, of which more than 500,000 pairs of birds are of breeding age.
Today the number is only 60,000 pairs. The reduction is so great that science still cannot understand why.
To obtain these indicators, experts from the Center de Recherche Biologique de Chizé (CNRS – France) used satellite data from 2005, combined with a number of photos taken between 1982 and 1988. As a result, the number of penguins here is on the rise. 88% drop – a loss equivalent to a third of all king penguins in the world.
Specifically, the team calculated the contours of the current island and calculated the part of the area covered by plants. This is because king penguins only live in flat, slightly sloping areas without trees. On the contrary, plants grow less where they are occupied.
But since 1980, the vegetation cover has gradually started to cover the penguin breeding area. It is a sign of the collapse of the kingdom.
The vegetation cover gradually encroached from 1982.
The problem is why?
This is really a question that is not easy to answer, as other penguin populations nearby have not declined at all. Like Possession Island, penguins have remained roughly the same since 1960. There has even been an increase in numbers on Marion Island and Kerguelen Island.
This leads experts to believe that the reason lies entirely in Isle of Pigs rather than a global phenomenon and does not appear to be linked to the process of climate change. The problem is, no one has figured out the reason yet.
The first theory is that a polarization event in the Indian Ocean in 1997 affected the king penguin on Possession Island.
Currently, the team of experts has made some assumptions. The first was a polarization event in the Indian Ocean in 1997. This event warmed the ocean surface in the island area of Possession Island, making it difficult for penguins to find food and suffer. negative effects.
The Isle of Possession has so far been restored, but the assumption is that this event also affected the Isle of Pigs kingdom and that it will take more time to restore it.
Another theory is the migration process. Basically, king penguins are a very attached species to the homeland. They will always stay where they were born and mate. However, footage from 2005 shows another population closing in on the coast – an area it has never been to. However, this population was too small to account for the disappearance of the large number of penguins. King penguins are a species very attached to the homeland.
It is also believed that alien animals – wild cats, rats … exert an influence. In particular, fleas on mice can cause disease on a large scale. However, there was such an outbreak on Marion Island in 1990, but it didn’t have too much of an impact.
What about natural disasters? It is also highly unlikely, as there is no evidence that a tsunami or volcano was active here.
One of the reasons it’s so hard to find the cause is that science hasn’t approached this island for so long. The last time scientists set foot on the island was in 1982. So, to clarify the cause, it might make more sense to take a field trip.
“The entire kingdom has collapsed, and the reason remains a mystery. We have to solve it” – cited in the team’s report.
