Santiago, Landau 9th July 2023.
In recent years, Chilean and New Zealand researchers Alejandro Simeone, Guillermo Luna, Ursula Ellenberg and Thomas Mattern have conducted studies on the population, breeding success and foraging of Humboldt penguins on behalf of Sphenisco. The extensive and costly research work was financially supported by the Species Conservation Foundation Karlsruhe Zoo, the Friends of Hagenbeck Zoo and Dresden Zoo. The slogan "Research for Survival" has been repeatedly reported on these pages ("Projects Chile", July 2022 and "News", February 2023). Now the researchers present their approach and results in the final report "Investigations of the population and foraging behaviour of Humboldt penguins in Chile": „… During the breeding seasons 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 (October to December), we studied the breeding population of the Humboldt penguin (Spheniscus humboldti) on 10 islands along the coast of north-central Chile. The islands vary greatly in area, from 3 ha (Islote Pájaro Niño) to 516 ha (Chañaral), and in population, from 35 breeding pairs (Islote Ramadas) to 729 breeding pairs (Isla Chachagua). The total population was estimated at 2,511 breeding pairs.