Injury, infection, and starvation threaten Aotearoa's penguins

It was pure coincidence that two penguins killed in Wildlands Adventure Zoo in Emmen became national news. Normally, the zoo would not publicize the mystery. A passer-by, who saw employees busy with the animals, called the local newspaper. "We deal with life and death here every day, so we are not really surprised by this," responded a spokesperson for Wildlands. It is now thought that a fox or marten-like animal struck in the penguin enclosure.…

In a zoo in Emmen, in the north of the Netherlands, two penguins were bitten to death by an unknown predator. The caretakers discovered the dead animals yesterday morning. It is not yet clear which animal bit the penguins to death. The zoo assumes that it was a predator from outside the park.

An unknown predator has killed two penguins at Wildlands Zoo in Emmen. Keepers discovered the dead animals yesterday morning. The zoo is convinced that the penguins were killed by an animal from outside the park. No animals have escaped from their enclosure at Wildlands. "The penguins had bite marks, but it is unknown which animal inflicted them," spokesperson Hanneke Wijshake told RTV Drenthe. Animal and plant coordinator Henk Kuiper has no ide…

Injury, infection, and starvation threaten Aotearoa's penguins

An analysis of 1300 wild penguin deaths across seven species shows the threats they face in Aotearoa. Studying a national catalogue of reported wildlife deaths from 1986 to 2020, researchers found the most common diagnosis, affecting a third of penguins, was emaciation. However, the main causes of death were infection or inflammatory disease, which killed over a third of penguins, followed by traumatic injury—the main killer of kororā. The study…

A fox? A marten? It is not yet known which predator bit two penguins to death last night in a zoo in Emmen, in the north of the Netherlands. Electric fencing has now been installed to protect other penguins.