Galapagos Penguin Population Doubles With Climate Change

Can climate change be good for penguins?! A new study suggests that at least one unusual species of the swimming birds found on the iconic Galapagos Islands might actually benefit from a changing world.

It's no secret that the great majority of penguins are having a tough time in the wake of climate change. The iconic emperor penguins of Antarctica, for instance, continues to march towards extinction as the average climate of their native habitat continues to warm. Some research has shown that due to shifting ocean currents and water temperatures, these animals are losing the ice from which they fish (not unlike the arctic's polar bears) and often have to move to find new suitable territory.

What's worse, some sub-arctic penguins are being raped and then eaten by local fur seals in a bizarre learned behavior that may be the result of a climate driven decline in the availability of mates or more traditional prey. (Scroll to read on...)

What's worse, researchers announced back in Nov. that the pacific is priming for a stretch of particularly harmful El Niños that could threaten both declining coral populations and the Galapagos penguins. The hope then, is that the northern shift of the Equatorial Undercurrent persists, counteracting what could be otherwise disastrous conditions in the Pacific.

According to Karnauskas, that's also why his work is invaluable to conservationists trying to protect the rare penguins. With strong evidence that the regions where the birds feed are expanding (for now), Karnauskas argues that it could be easier to widen marine-protected areas around the islands, giving the penguins a little more growing room.

"With climate change, there are a lot of new and increasing stresses on ecosystems, but biology sometimes surprises us," he said. "There might be places-little outposts-where ecosystems might thrive just by coincidence."

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