Hundreds of dead baby penguins: you know, for kids!

by JGordon on Jul. 21st, 2008

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A baby penguin: Enjoy it while it lasts.
Courtesy Ben CooperNature is playing a funny joke on the world. It involves cute, baby penguins, and the tropical beaches of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The punch line: the baby penguins are dead, and the beaches of Rio are covered in them.

Ho ho ho! Nice one, Nature!

You’ve all heard of the Circle of Life, I’m sure, and dead baby penguins are a beautiful part of that process, but this year something seems awry—namely that there are tons more dead baby penguins in Brazil than you’d normally expect.

The cause of the baby penguin die off is still unclear, but local zoo officials (the only authorities quoted in this article) believe that it may have to do with pollution, or over fishing causing the penguins to swim further for food than they normally would. Baby penguins would not be as able to contend with stronger ocean currents further from shore, and they’d, you know, drown and die.

So it may not be totally accurate to say that it’s Nature’s fault that all the baby penguins died. But it seems like something Nature would do.

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