Multiple effects of global climate change are killing baby penguins in Argentina.  Heavy rains, strong storms, and heat waves were wreaking havoc in the historically dry area that the world’s largest colony of Magellanic Penguins calls home.

Adult penguins can handle the changing weather a little better, because they’re covered with waterproof feathers.  But the young chicks are covered in soft down, and they can become quickly drenched in heavy rains and storms, and die of exposure.  It’s leading to a shrinking Magellanic Penguin population.

A 27-year study focused on the Punta Tombo region of Argentina, which had for a very long time been arid.  But in two of those years, heavy rains killed 50 and 43 percent of the chicks – the most common cause of chick death in those years.  The study found that chicks died in storms in 13 of 28 years examined, and that high rainfall and lower-than-usual temperature killed more chicks than a lighter, warmer rain.

“Penguins are really the ocean’s sentinels,” said the study’s lead author Professor Dee Boersma from the University of Washington.

“They are telling us that we’d better start paying attention to climate change because penguins are dying from heat and these increased storms.  At the same time we’re starting to see increased numbers of people die from these same sorts of things.  So these penguins are really the canary in the coal mine.”