Sustainable Choices to Protect the Galapagos Penguin

Galapagos Penguin, by Joesph Tepper

The species that I will be talking about today in this blog post are the Galapagos Penguin. These beautiful creatures stand only 19-21 inches tall. On the front of their bodies is a white sheet of fur, that keep them warm from the cold ocean temperatures. The rest of their bodies are covered in black fur, with hints of white patches around the head and beak area of the penguin. "You can find the Galapagos Penguin on the western islands of Fernandina and Isabela" (Klassen, 2018). These are the only penguins to live north of the equator in a tropical environment. The Galapagos Penguin are significantly higher up on the food chain. These penguins mainly eat small fish like mullets and sardines. They are dependent on the ocean currents to bring the fish to their feeding grounds. Since the penguins are small sized, they are preyed by snakes, crabs, and rats on the land. While in the water, they are preyed by sharks, fur seals, and sea lions. Breeding normally takes place between April,July, August, and December. They lay two eggs, four days apart from one another. The eggs are incubated for up to 40 days, with each parent taking their turn. After hatching, chicks need 30 days to grow their initial plumage and are brought food by their parents for an additional 65 days. Chicks can be fully grown within two months, but growth is dependent on food availability (Boersma 2008). Most of the penguins on the island starve to death because of El Nino, which affects the climate in the Pacific region of the island. The El Nino event causes the penguins to move inland, away from the coastal region of the island. The penguins cannot find enough food to eat, so they abandon their young. There aren’t many of these penguins left with numbers ranging from 1,200 to 1,300. There are about 800 breeding pairs left in the world, making the animals considered endangered.

Galapagos Islands: Hugh_s20


The Islands: Eric Gaba


Galapagos Penguin Habitat: Hjalmar Gislason

The Major Biome that the Galapagos penguin lives in is a neotropical biome. They live on the coastal area, where they can on the land and hunt in the offshore waters. The Galapagos Islands can be found off the coast of Equator. Their habitats temperature varies from 59 to over

100 degrees Fahrenheit. Since they live in a neotropical environment, the island barely sees rainfall. Which keeps the hot temperatures rising, resulting in sifting habitats. The island is mainly covered in rocks, so they use them for formations of nest and camouflaging from their prey.

Some Biotic factors they use the plants and various things that turn energy into energy being stored (Griffiths). The primary consumers like the Choke Fish or the Galapagos Tortoise are responsible for eating the producers. They use the producers to gain energy for themselves. The consumers at the top of the food chain include; sharks, sea lions, and fur seals. These are predators in the water that they should look out for.

Identify and Describe within the biome: The Galapagos Penguin is the most northerly breeding penguin species. These penguins live in a neotropical biome, just off the coast of Ecuador. It nests just above sea level and forages close to shore and at relatively shallow depths (Mills 2000, Steinfurth et al. 2008, Boersma et al. 2013, 2015). The penguins breed throughout the year. During chick rearing, adult birds move up to 23.5 km from the nest, concentrating foraging within 1 km of the shore. Most of the non-breeding penguins begin to migrate away from their own colony (Boersma 1977, Vargas et al. 2006, Steinfurth 2007). After fledging occurs, if there is enough food, adults continue to feed fledglings. Just like I mentioned above, the Galapagos penguins need small fish, such as mullets and sardines. The depend on the ocean currents to bring the fish to their feeding grounds. They do this because of the large prey that live in the ocean waters. The Galapagos Penguin survives due to the cool ocean temperature, resulting from the Humboldt Current and cool waters from great depths, brought up by the Cromwell Current.

What does EL NINO look like? Picture at EL NINO

There are many threats that the Galapagos Penguins have to deal with. Some of the those threats include transportation/service corridors, biological resource use, human disturbance, disease, pollution, and climate change. The one I will be mainly focusing on right now is how climate change and severe weather are altering the Galapagos Islands. With climate change happening, it brings up these concerns habitat shiftings, temperature extremes, storms and flooding. Climate change is important to this biome because it affects the way the animals live on the islands. The islands sit in between three intersections of the earth's ocean currents. These cause some of the worlds worst destructive weather patterns, causing shifts in different habitats that live on the island (Boersma 1978, 1998, Vargas et al. 2005, 2006, 2007, Boersma et al. 2013, 2015). Climate change in this particular region causes an increase in the frequency of the El Nino events (Trenberth and Hoar 1996, 1997, Houghton et al. 2001, Karl and Trenberth 2003). Local fishing boats that are operating the waters around the islands, have documented as accidentally drowning the precious Galapagos Penguins due to the use of floating nets that they lay in the water (Cepeda and Cruz 1994). This is an important event that happens in this region of the world because it affects have the potential of wiping out an species. People in this world cannot afford to have a whole species extent.  

This is not just happening in the Galapagos, if we compare these islands with the desert, you can see these trends occurring there as well. Animals are losing their habitats due to wildfires. They have to relocate to different regions because of the unbecoming heatwaves and temperatures. When most of the animals that begin to relocate, causing them to become prey to other food chain. In Antarctica, algae and krill are affected by habitat loss and the decline of food. Krill has declined eighty percent due to the loss of algae, its primary food source. Most of the algae are decreasing from ice sheets, which cling to the bottom of. In Australia they are losing fifty percent of their species within the last ten years. The increases in temperature causes the ocean water and sand to warm. This is also affecting the turtle reproduction, causing the female turtles to only reproduce more female offspring. 

There are some solutions to the climate change and severe weather events happening in the Galapagos Islands. Some of those solutions include; marine management, waste and resource management, etc. There are also many ways to restore the island to its natural beauty. You can restore the ecosystems that live within the island, taking care of invasive species that are unknown to the island, etc. Many scientists that have lived and experienced the island life have come to a conclusion that we need sanctuaries and more protected area's are the world, not just in the Galapagos but in other islands around the globe. Scientists are the world also made a huge suggestion to creating more projects like Sea Shepherd. This is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the marine wildlife conservation. To continue the conversation, Project Pinta is an ecological restoration program that will be returning the tortoises back to its original island. These animals are returning to their original habitat after 40+ years of absence. What may have caused the tortoises to change their habitat? There are many other solutions to help save these precious islands, we just need to start acting now or nothing will get done and you'll see extinction in certain species in the Galapagos. 

Climate Strike 2019, Keene State College

A Typical person at Keene State College would take action to the threats I explained above. No one, especially in Keene like to put these issues aside. There are many on campus organizations that go into great detail about Climate Change and how it is affecting many different regions of our planet. A couple of weeks ago, there was a climate strike happening directly on the lawn in front of the student center. This event didn't just occur in Keene, it happened nationally. People all over the country pleading their claims on why climate change is affecting our planet. If you want to be apart of this, you can absolutely join. There are many organizations that present everyday in the student center. You can see different types of people sharing their voice and how they can get involved as soon as possible. That's the benefit of these small groups, you can join at anytime and be apart of a team that could possibly change how people view these specific issues and could change the worlds impact on these threats.



Sources:

Klassen, Christopher. “Where Are Penguins Found in the Galapagos Islands? A List of Places.” Galapagos Tours Yacht Isabela II, 7 Aug. 2019, https://www.yachtisabela.com/where-are-penguins-found-in-the-galapagos-islands/.

“Galapagos Islands Penguins: Habitat of Galapagos Penguins.” Galapagos Islands Penguins | Habitat of Galapagos Penguins, https://www.expeditions.com/destinations/south-america/galapagos/the-experience/read-up-gear-up/staff-article26/?&mrkgcl=1244&mrkgadid=3338210717&utm_source=OLAMK|Google|DSA&utm_medium=SEM&utm_campaign=Galapagos+(DSA)&utm_content=245930912|442670639|0&utm_keyword=Google_AdGroup&gclid=CjwKCAiArJjvBRACEiwA-Wiqq4F-RfnnBMq41-3Ut457itx-_becJclU-Lqk_NU2DtNl9akUyMRVKBoCK6sQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds.

“Galapagos Penguin Spheniscus Mendiculus.” Galapagos Penguin - Breeding | Neotropical Birds Online, https://neotropical.birds.cornell.edu/Species-Account/nb/species/galpen1/breeding.

“Galapagos Penguin - Facts, Diet & Habitat Information.” Animal Corner, https://animalcorner.co.uk/animals/galapagos-penguin/.

Griffiths, Ethan. “Factors.” The Galapagos Islands, https://worldofgalapagos.weebly.com/factors.html.

https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22697825/132606008