New park preserves penguins and marine animals in Argentina

The Bronx Zoo Wildlife Conservation Association recently announced that their efforts to protect the diversity of wildlife in the South American coast have paid off: a park that preserves life Wilderness has been officially introduced by the Argentine government.

The park protects half a million penguins and several rare seabirds and the only South American seal. This is the first conservation area in Argentina designed to protect not only onshore breeding grounds but also areas in the sea where animals search for food.

The establishment of this park is a joint effort of the Argentine national park industry, the Chubut Government, the Fundación Patagonia Wildlife Conservation and Natural Life Association, with support from the Global Environmental Development Program. United Nations demand.

WCS researchers, working with Fundación Patagonia Natural Organization, have provided important data on wildlife to ensure that the park's borders include both onshore areas and adjacent waters.Researchers found that the area should be protected due to increasing pressure from fishing and the oil industry.

Dr Guillermo Harris, director of the Argentina Program, the Wildlife Conservation Association, said: 'The park protects one of the richest and most fertile marine ecosystems on the planet. The establishment of this park was at a time when many animal species were threatened by the regional fishing and energy industry. '

About 500,000 Magellanic penguins now live under the protection of a new conservation park at the Golfo San Jorge, Argentina. (Photo: Graham Harris / Wildlife Conservation Association).

Located at the Golfo San Jorge in Chubut province, about 1056 miles (1700 km) south of Buenos Aires, this conservation area covers 250 square miles (647 square kilometers) nearshore and uninhabited islands around 100 miles ( 160 km) coast.

The area acts as a nesting and breeding site for about 1/4 million pairs of Magellanic penguins, accounting for about 25% of the total number of these animals in Patagonia. The 50 small islands in the area are also home to the two colonies of southern pelagic birds, accounting for more than 80% of the total number of these animals in Patagonia. Other species that inhabit this oasis include the endangered Olrog gull, white duck, and about one-third of the imperial cormorants and stone cormorants of Argentina.

While this coastline has not been developed, wildlife here is always threatened by commercial fishing nets. Oil pollution from ships carrying gasoline from southern Patagonia to Buenos Aire, along with the expansion of offshore oil drilling, has also served as a potential threat to wildlife in recent years.

The Mitsubishi Foundation provided funding for the formation of this unique protected area as well as other multi-faceted efforts of the WCS to protect the Patagonia coast, including the Sea and Sky program, to ensure protecting the long-term development of the Patagonian Sea by combining advanced science, building resources and promoting marine conservation.

WCS has been operating in Patagonia since the 1960s, conducting many conservation studies on bullhead whales, Magellanic penguins, Southern sea elephants, and other rare wildlife.WCS operates more than 740,000 hectares of wildlife in Tierra del Fuego, Chile, part of Goldman Sachs donated land in 2004.