Episode 1203: Peru's Desert Penguins

Peru’s arid coastline is home to one of the world’s great natural spectacles. Where the desert meets the sea, the seabirds reign. It is amidst this explosion of life - these hundreds of thousands of Guanay cormorants, Peruvian pelicans and Peruvian boobies - that another, slightly clumsier, species of bird lives as well.

The adorable Humboldt penguin needs the other seabirds’ guano to build its nests. Named after the cold current that provides nourishment for this incredibly vibrant ecosystem, these penguins can safely nest and rest inside Peru’s national reserve network of 33 islands and peninsulas.

Their time spent feeding is a different story. While these flightless birds are highly adapted for life at sea, they compete with the fishery for anchovies, and the penguins can get entangled in fishing nets.

Dedicated scientists monitor Peru’s penguin populations and study the animals’ interactions with fisheries to provide managers with the data needed to better protect the animals in the future.

Experts

Meet the experts featured in this episode.

Episode Photos

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Punta San Juan, in southern Peru, is part of a National Reserve Network of 33 protected areas. This special place is home to an impressive number of seabirds and pinnipeds.

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Each day, Humboldt penguins must cross the desert in Punta San Juan to travel between their nests and the sea.

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Hundreds of former seabird nests constructed from guano, or bird droppings, cover the desert in Punta San Juan.

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Guanay cormorants are one of the three species of "guano birds" that produce the vast majority of guano sold as fertilizer.

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Peruvian boobies are another species of "guano bird." In the fall of 2019 they were nesting by the thousands on Guañape Norte, a remote, protected island in the north of Peru.

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Peruvian pelicans are the third species of "guano bird" that nest in large numbers along Peru's desert coastline.

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Guano deposited in the National Reserves is harvested for use as fertilizer. Peru is the largest guano producer in the world.

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Penguins are very skittish and afraid of people. To film close-ups our crew moved around the Punta San Juan Reserve in a mobile blind that didn't bother the birds.

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From left to right: Punta San Juan Program Field Coordinator Marco Cardeña, Researcher Alonso Bussalleu, and Changing Seas Videographers David Diez and Felipe Marrou.

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A Humboldt penguin on the beach in Punta San Juan. The species' breeding range runs from Foca Island in northern Peru to Metalqui Island in southern Chile.

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A Humboldt penguin crosses the desert in Punta San Juan on its way back to its nest after a foraging trip in the ocean.

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Humboldt penguins nesting in guano on a cliff in Punta San Juan. Penguins need the guano from other birds, like the guanay cormorants seen behind them here, to build their nests.

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A penguin pair performing an "ecstatic display" once one of the mates has returned to the nest after a foraging trip.

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A Humboldt penguin and chick in a crevice nest. In Punta San Juan, the penguins have two breeding periods each year.

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While most penguins are studied from a safe distance, researchers do approach a few select nests during the breeding season to gather more in-depth information about the animals.

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Punta San Juan Program Field Assistant Daniel Torres weighs a penguin chick as part of its weekly checkup.

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The Humboldt penguins' path from the nests to the sea can be fraught with danger. Sometimes raucous and aggressive South American sea lions create an obstacle course for the birds.

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South American fur seals and sea lions also rest and breed at Punta San Juan.

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A seagull with a stolen egg. A number of predators pose a threat to the nesting birds.

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Predators like this Andean fox can have a serious impact on the penguins and other birds nesting on peninsulas like Punta San Juan.

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Punta San Juan Research Assistant Lyanne Ampuero studies the impact rats have on Inca tern chicks. The rats also predate on penguin chicks that are left unattended.

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Inca terns are among the many birds nesting on Peru's guano islands and along the country's desert coastline.

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From left to right: Videographer David Diez, Series Producer Alexa Elliott, and Videographer Felipe Marrou loved spending time in Punta San Juan!

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Guañape Norte in the north of Peru is one of many guano islands that are protected as part of the National Reserve Network.

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Approximately a quarter million Peruvian boobies, together with thousands of other seabirds, were nesting on Guañape Norte in November 2019.

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Carlos Zavalaga, Ph.D. and his students from the Marine Ecosystem Research Unit at the Universidad Científica del Sur attach a specialized data logger on a nesting penguin.

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The data loggers record depth and location while a penguin is at sea. The experts want to know if the birds interact with the fishery, whose nets can drown trapped penguins.

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The UIEM-GAM science team waves goodbye to the Changing Seas crew after three successful days of filming. Reaching Isla Guañape Norte requires climbing up a steep rope ladder.

Image Credits

Changing Seas would like to thank the following individuals and institutions who kindly allowed their footage, images and other media to be used in this production:

Albatros Media Foundation

Chicago Zoological Society

Francis C. Franklin / CC-BY-SA-3.0

Library of Congress, Rare Book and Special Collections Division

Patricia Majluf, Personal Archive

Peter Kragh

Punta San Juan Program
Alex Antezana
Antje Chiu
Paulo Colchao
Daniel Torres
Jasmin Scholl
Karen Lau
Leticia Escobar
Lyanne Ampuero
Marco Cardeña
María José Ganoza
Matthieu Galand
Patricia Sangiorgi

Visart Photography

Special Thanks:

AGRORURAL

SERNANP

Susana Cárdenas
Fernando Nishio
Punta San Juan Program

Eduardo Salcedo

Nina Pardo

Daniel Cáceres Bartra

Jaime Jahncke

Moises Tomairo Ucharima

Wilson Lozano Mozombite

Felipe Adrianzen Reyes

Aldo Villanueva
Jean Paul Perret
Ecologistica Peru

David Hurtado
Bertha López
Consulate General of Peru in Miami

David Segurado

José Landa

Flor Merino

Dante Gomez

JoséManuel Rubio Rodríguez

Pablo Lalo Arroyo

Alejandro Balaguer

Chris Neighbors

Evelyn Merino-Reyna

Sandra Otoya

Web Extras

Filming Wildlife in Peru- Behind the Scenes!

Interviewing Alexa Elliott, finalist of #LabMeCrazy2022 with "Changing Seas -Peru's Desert Penguins"

Penguins Bathing and Swimming in Peru

Peru Wildlife - Penguins, Seabirds, Sea Lions, and More!

Seagull vs. Penguin

Tracking the Peruvian Booby - A 360 Degree Experience

Along Peru’s barren desert coastline, the seabirds reign. Protected on islands and peninsulas that are part of a national reserve network, guano birds like Guanay cormorants, Peruvian boobies and Peruvian pelicans can nest and rest undisturbed. These species of bird produce large quantities of guano, or poop, which is harvested commercially for use as fertilizer. Peru is the largest guano producer in the world, and for decades the harvests meant big business – until fishing for anchovy became more profitable.

These highly sought-after fish also happen to be the birds’ primary food source, leading to competition between the commercial fishery and the guano birds. To better understand how the two overlap, a team of researchers led by Dr. Carlos Zavalaga from the Marine Ecosystem Research Unit at the Universidad Científica del Sur in Lima is studying where Peruvian boobies go when they are at sea.

Episode 1203: Peru's Desert Penguins

Experts

Marco Cardeña

Alonso Bussalleu

Lyanne Ampuero

Carlos Zavalaga, Ph.D.