February 2008

29 February 2008
Stuttgart zoo loses a bird, gains a polar bear
(Germany)
Officials at a zoo in Stuttgart, Germany, say police believe an African penguin named Babe who has gone missing from her enclosure was abducted.
Read Spiegel Online article

27 February 2008
Conservation group sues Bush administration over delay in penguin protection
(USA)
The Center for Biological Diversity filed suit against the Bush administration today for failing to take action to protect 10 penguin species threatened by global warming under the Endangered Species Act.
Read Center for Biological Diversity press release

22 February 2008
Council grants fund penguin housing
(New Zealand)
Wellington’s struggling little blue penguin population is receiving much needed help thanks to a Council funded initiative called Places for Penguins. The project received a $5000 grant to help make Wellington’s coastal areas more penguin-friendly.
Read Wellington City Council press release

18 February 2008
Fears for 1200-strong St Kilda penguin colony
(Australia)
The Port of Melbourne Corporation’s plan to monitor little penguins on Phillip Island rather than a colony at St Kilda, which is closer to bay dredging work, has outraged environmentalists. Earthcare St Kilda said the port authority was trying to hide any negative effects from the public.
Read The Age article

13 February 2008
Penguins swim free after successful rehabilitation
(Argentina)
A total of 163 magellanic penguins waddled into the South Atlantic waters after spending a few weeks getting clean and healthy following an oil spill in Patagonia, Argentina. The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) successfully rehabilitated and released these and other oiled seabirds affected by the mystery spill that occurred on 26 December 2007.
Read IFAW press release

11 February 2008
King penguins declining due to global warming
(Antarctica)
New research suggests that king penguin populations on Possession Island in the Indian Ocean’s Crozet Archipelago are declining because of climate change, a new study says. Warmer seas are forcing the birds to travel longer distances to find food.
Read National Geographic News article

A penguin paradise, for now
(Antarctica)
Biologist David Ainley has been studying Antarctic penguins for 12 years. So far, he says, climate change has been good for penguins of Cape Royds. Clearing sea ice has left plenty of open ocean for feeding. But penguins need ice to live, and they are moving to areas where the temperatures are rising to fast to keep the ice they need in place.
Read CBS News article

11 February 2008
Penguins saved after sea rages
(New Zealand)
Heavy seas at the weekend caused havoc at the Oamaru Creek penguin refuge, eroding the coastline and displacing blue penguins and nesting boxes. Department of Conservation rangers Kevin Pearce and Helen Jones, and Kelly Ross from the nearby blue penguin colony, rescued birds and put them into nesting boxes at the Oamaru Harbour refuge.
Read Otago Daily Times article

7 February 2008
NZ Antarctic display has thriving export trade in penguins
(New Zealand)
Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic Encounter and Underwater World aquarium is attempting to export another 77 of its king and gentoo penguins, this time to a Melbourne aquarium. Talrton’s has been breeding the penguins for nearly 12 years and has so far exported 110 of them to countries such as China, Spain, Taiwan and Japan.
Read TV3 article

4 February 2008
Year of the (dead) rat in Milford Sound
(New Zealand)
It may be the Chinese Year of the Rat, but 2008 is not looking positive for rodents and their stoat cousins in Milford Sound. Local tourism company Real Journeys has just installed 10 new traps part of an expansion of their ongoing predator-control programme in the area. The traps aim to protect rare Fiordland crested penguins and other birdlife from stoats and rats.
Read Real Journeys press release at Scoop.co.nz

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