Galapagos: record increase in number of penguins and cormorants

The water bird spreads its atrophied wings.

The Galapagos Cormorant lost its ability to fly, but became a diver.

Galapagos National Park (PNG)

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3 min

Good news in the Galapagos.

Carried out in recent days by the Charles Darwin Foundation and the Galapagos National Park, the latest census of penguins and cormorants shows a record growth in the number of these birds endemic to the archipelago, known to have inspired scientist Charles Darwin to his famous theory of evolution.

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With our correspondent in Quito, 

The Galapagos Cormorant is the only species of cormorant in the world that has lost its ability to fly.

Living in an isolated area of ​​the archipelago, this bird has become a diver to find its food in the fish-rich waters of the archipelago.

According to the last census, they are now 2,290, a figure never reached since 1977, when the first count was made.

Alone to live on the line of the Equator, the Galapagos razorbills have never been as numerous as since 2006. Park rangers and scientists have counted 1,940 in their main colonies in the Isabela Islands and Fernandina and in some small islets in the west of the archipelago.

A little Galapagos penguin Galapagos National Park (PNG)

These record figures are due, according to scientists, to the La Niña weather phenomenon which abnormally cools the Pacific and causes the rise to the surface of the species on which penguins and cormorants feed.

The absence of tourists during the Covid-19 pandemic also avoided any disruption in the breeding areas.

For the Minister of Environment and Water Paulo Proaño, these record figures prove that the control actions have " 

", especially as 86% of populations are of adult age and therefore capable of reproducing. .

This news is all the better as the cormorants and penguins of the Galapagos are on the Red List of Endangered Species of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (

).

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