Seabird experts are worried after three frail Fiordland penguins were found on beaches near Esperance in a single week, when they should have been at a breeding site in New Zealand.
abc.net.au/news/lost-fiordland-penguins-in-esperance-raise-bird-expert-fears/102500672Sean Hazelden was recuperating after an icy morning swim when a tiny figure emerged from the surf and staggered up the beach.The Esperance resident rushed over, scooping up the skeletal traveller in his arms.The black-and-white bird, crowned with a flourish of yellow feathers over each eye, was a Fiordland crested penguin, one of the world's rarest penguin species.
The last one was found by three swimming teachers at Wharton Beach, another 20km east from Dunn Rock. "When we see them being tossed in the surf or lethargic on a beach, that's the indicator that something has changed out there in the marine environment and that the birds are not coping," she said.She said they were not the only bird species in distress, with shearwaters washing up sick and dying along the south coast in recent weeks., the first time the species had ever been recorded in WA.
Ms Shibish hoped that after doubling their body weight, the penguins would eventually be released back into the wild.Dr Lavers said as well as helping the birds, it was important to examine why they had suffered."For a long time … communities have looked to seabirds as indicators of the health of the world's oceans," she said.
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