Overview
- Local monitors and residents reported dozens of dead Magellanic penguins on beaches around Caleta Olivia and Comodoro Rivadavia Wednesday, triggering alarms across Chubut and Santa Cruz.
- The Centro Ambiental de Apoyo a la Ciencia y Ecología alerted provincial fauna bodies, the Consejo Agrario Provincial and SENASA, which together activated a preventive avian influenza protocol.
- Investigators say avian influenza is the main working hypothesis but they have not confirmed a cause and are also examining food shortages, pollution and ocean conditions.
- Officials and NGOs ask people not to touch dead birds, to keep pets restrained and to send zoomed photos with precise Google Maps locations to Fundación Cadace to help mapping and sampling.
- Conservation groups warn the event threatens key Magellanic penguin colonies such as those near Punta Tombo and say expanded beach monitoring and lab testing will determine whether wider protective measures are needed.