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Magellanic Penguin Parent and Chick

Magellanic penguin parents typically lay two eggs under a bush or in a burrow, taking turns swimming out to sea to catch food for their chicks.
(Dietmar Temps, Flickr)

A parent Magellanic penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus) sits with its big chick. Magellanic penguins live in South America, breeding in colonies along the coasts of Chile, Argentina and the Falkland Islands, and some migrate north to Brazil. Parents typically lay two eggs under a bush or in a burrow, taking turns swimming out to sea to catch food for their chicks. But the largest colony in the world at Punta Tombo, Argentina  is shrinking, and the culprit seems to be climate change. As the ocean warms, the fish that penguins catch for food are moving further from shore, causing the adults to swim a much farther distance to feed themselves and their chicks. Read the full story on the Ocean Portal blog.