It was a slaughter. By 2007, a family of pumas likely killed thousands of Magellanic penguins (MP), over the course of several nesting seasons along the wild coastline of Argentine Patagonia.
A group of scientists scoured the Monte León National Park crime scene, collected information, and have now presented some theories about the root causes of this seabird mass murder. They have also named some unwitting co-conspirators behind the killings: humans, according to an article in the Journal for Nature Conservation.
About 100 years ago, the Patagonian penguin population was probably not nearly as large as it was in 2007. That began to change when sheep farmers arrived, and, to protect their flocks, probably killed off most potential penguin predators. Growth in both whaling and the fur trade there probably had a similar effect on marine predators.
“This would have made breeding habitats near marine food resources accessible and may ...
