User:Prad8960/Galapagos penguin

Population:

Galapagos penguin trying to blend in with the rocks in the background.

Galapagos Penguin Rarity

The Galapagos penguins are officially known as the rarest penguin species in the world. The decline of these birds has been prevalent since the 1970’s. Around this time, there was a peak period where it was estimated to be anywhere from 6,000-15,000 penguins living. Between the years of 1982-1983, roughly 77% of the population died because of starvation caused by extreme weather . 15 years later in 1995, the population only rose by roughly 1300 individuals.

Endangered Status

According to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, back in 1988, they were categorized as ‘Near Threatened’ and that quickly changed to ‘Vulnerable' in 1994 . As of the year 2000, they were placed on the ‘Endangered’ list and continue to be endangered to this day. As of August 2020, the number of mature individual penguins is roughly 1,200 . They are placed on a declining population trend as the number of individual penguins drops to an all-time low.

Impact of Climate Change on Population

However, long term monitoring suggests that the population fluctuation is due to marine disturbances that become even more extreme by climate change. These disturbances are a major cause for the rapid decline in population for roughly 31 years . Another major aspect is the population size of the species being small and them being restricted to a small area that causes breeding to occur in a few confined locations. The penguins have predatory issues on both land and water that add to their loss of population . Marine predators being sharks, sea lions and seals. The major threats on land include overheating due to climate change, starvation and new animals being introduced into the environment . Sometimes, the penguins are forced to blend in with the black lava rocks surrounding them by turning their black backs and blending in naturally in order to hide from terrestrial predators . All of these factors tied together cause for the remaining population to be deemed as ‘Endangered’. It is very evident that the El Niño situation is greatly impacting the future conservation of the penguin population. When taking a look at the population trends between the years of 1965 to 2004, it has been predicted that there is a 30% chance that the possibility of extinction for this population will occur in the next 100 years . As the El Niño episodes continue to increase, their risk for extinction increases and the gap at which their population declines gets smaller. The probability of extinction increased to over 80% once the frequency of the El Niño situation increased to 10% compared to its current frequency which is 5% . Depending on the subpopulations on the Galapagos Islands, the probability of extinction varied, but the smaller the population, the higher the chance of extinction occurring. It was also found that survival of the Galapagos penguins during the El Niño events was dependent upon sex ratio as well . It is key to factor in that these estimates of extinction are actually lower due to the fact that it does not factor in the other threats that impact the penguins.

Article Draft

References

1. BirdLife International. 2020. Spheniscus mendiculus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020: e.T22697825A182729677. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-3.RLTS.T22697825A182729677.en.
2. Mills, Kyra L.; Vargas, Hernán (1997-05). "Current status, analysis of census methodology, and conservation of the Galapagos Penguin, Spheniscus mendiculus". http://aquaticcommons.org/id/eprint/6810. ISSN 0550-1067.
3. Vargas, F. Hernán; Lacy, Robert C.; Johnson, Paul J.; Steinfurth, Antje; Crawford, Robert J. M.; Dee Boersma, P.; Macdonald, David W. (2007-06-01). "Modelling the effect of El Niño on the persistence of small populations: The Galápagos penguin as a case study". Biological Conservation. 137 (1): 138–148. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2007.02.005. ISSN 0006-3207.