Louise Sallé 6:40 a.m., November 30, 2022
An unexpected phenomenon at sea. Torda penguins sometimes go to the Mediterranean in winter, but never in such numbers.
About twenty animals of this species have been seen in recent weeks near the Corsican coast: an unexplained presence.
Europe 1 takes stock.
Penguins have been spotted in Corsica!
They should not be confused with penguins, which inhabit the pack ice, and whose English name is "pinguin".
The Torda penguins, recently observed near the coast of the Island of Beauty, fly and live in Northern Europe - in Iceland and Scotland in particular - but also in the English Channel and off the Bay of Biscay.
They are occasionally found in the Mediterranean Sea during the winter months.
But they are, this year, present in very large numbers.
A phenomenon that questions the experts.
"It's rare that there are so many"
No less than twenty Torda penguins have indeed been identified in recent weeks, against barely two birds last year, details with Europe 1 Amandine Péricard, head of a local care center for wildlife.
"It is not insignificant that there are populations of Torda penguins in the Mediterranean Sea, but it is rare that there are so many", she is surprised.
"And for them, it's not at all usual to get close to humans. As we have seen for example in the port of Bastia or near Ajaccio, where they were really very close," adds -she.
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A lack of fish at the origin of this migration?
The penguins have thus been spotted near the coast.
However, these are birds of the high seas. For the Corsican ornithologist Antoine Leoncini, there are several possible explanations.
“Have food resources been lacking for these birds which have moved a little further south?” he asks.
“Or is it a recent storm that has steered them more towards our shores? There are many factors that we can take into account, but that we cannot yet analyze with certainty today. today."
What is certain is that their mysterious presence worries about their survival.