A man in Argentina kills almost 300 penguin chicks and destroys more than 140 penguin nests

Date Added: December 01, 2021 06:16:26 AM
Author: Sutra Web Directory
Category: Regional: Argentina

The authorities of the province of Chubut, in Argentine Patagonia, denounced a neighbor for the slaughter of nearly 300 penguin chicks and the destruction of some 140 nests kilometers from the Punta Tombo Protected Natural Area.

The accusation points to a man who usurped a land bordering that area, laid an electrified fence and used an excavator to trace a parallel path.

The Minister of Tourism and Protected Areas of Chubut, Néstor Garcia, considered that it is a fact “extremely serious” due to the population density of these birds in the area, which is now cut in the middle by a road and a power fence.

“The reproductive cycle of the penguin is breaking, and it also does so in the stage of birth of the young, the truth is very serious and I hope that the Justice will act with the utmost rigor,” said the official about the criminal complaint that has already been filed .

Faced with this scenario, the biologist and president of the Global Penguin Society, Pablo García Borboroglu, who carries out research tasks for the southern province, he pointed that the destruction of at least “146 nests, both by crushing and subsequent compaction of the ground, and by the deposit of material extracted with the shovel on nests bordering the road “.

Also registered “a total of 292 dead chicks and / or eggs destroyed, without being able to estimate even the number of adults that could have been crushed by the machines inside their nests “.

Minister García also explained that “the wire was electrified and this meant that the penguin could not go on to complete its feeding cycle.”

“The species, when it has its two young, one goes to look for food, the other stays to take care of the young, and it is a permanent transit and was prevented from doing so,” he pointed out.

Meanwhile, the prosecutor for the case based in the city of Rawson, Florencia Gómez, told the portal ADN that raids were carried out on the property and dead species rose, many of them electrified, for further analysis.

At the moment, the defendant is not detained, although he could be charged with violation of the law against animal abuse and, once the investigation progresses, he could be charged with other charges.

Regarding the reasons that led the man to go through a population of penguins with a bulldozer in a protected area, Gómez stated: “We think it was to have a direct access to the coast, But for that, it would be necessary to have a prior authorization and a study to analyze the environmental impact, which is what was generated: irreparable damage. ”