
Penguins typically begin arriving in September at the Punta Tombo breeding grounds, in the Patagonian province of Chubut, Argentina. Photo Credit: Diego Cabanas
Animals ArgentinaA “Historic” Silver Lining for These Special Penguins
A precedent-setting case following a man-made decimating tragedy for the Magellanic penguin population in Argentina led to new legal protections for the flightless bird, including expanding its breeding and nesting place and stricter regulations to safeguard entire ecosystems and the Southern Hemisphere’s biodiversity.
“This was a historic achievement, Argentina’s first-ever environmental case to reach an oral trial and a groundbreaking victory for penguins and conservation,” says Pablo “Popi” Borboroglu, founder of the Global Penguin Society, and a National Geographic Explorer. The case, “sets a crucial precedent for environmental justice and strengthens protections for wildlife and their habitats in Argentina.”
An estimated 175 nests were crushed, and more than 100 penguins were killed – dubbed the “Punta Tombo Penguin Massacre” in the Argentinian press – by a frustrated local rancher, and his trial led to the expansion of the protected area around Punta Tombo eightfold and the establishment of a new management plan meant to preserve penguins and other imperilled seabirds, plants, and sea lions along the coast. The Argentinian government is considering including environmental crimes in the national penal code. A newly established ecological prosecutor’s office in Patagonia will specialize in wildlife crime. Today, chicks from 180,000 breeding pairs of Magellanic penguins can be heard braying and peeping nonstop along Argentina’s central coast.