The Largest Penguin Rescue on Record - A Success for Animal Welfare - But a Terrible Omen

Some 2,500 Magellan penguins from the Argentina's Patagonia region, probably confused by the warm ocean currents stranded - dead and alive - on Brazil's northern coast in October last year. Approximately half of the penguins found on Brazilian beaches were dead, and the others were starving and in very bad shape,

Magellan penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) live in relatively warmer climates than other penguin species, and breed and nest in burrows from October to February, in southern Chile and Argentina, in a temperate and dry climate.
Magellans, one of 17 species of penguins living in the southern hemisphere, including Antarctica, are among the largest, weighing just over four kilograms, with striking colouring: a white chest and a white band around a black back and black head.

They travel out to sea during the winter, from March to September, to follow anchovies, their favourite food, in order to fatten up. However this year apparently the anchovies went deeper into the ocean in search for cold water and the penguins couldn't reach their food and consequently stranded because they were starving, according to Valeria Ruoppolo, an emergency veterinarian with the International Federation for Animal Welfare (IFAW), in São Paulo.

This year, about 2,500 disoriented juvenile penguins travelled more than 2,500 kilometres beyond the normal point, coming ashore in Salvador, in the Brazilian state of Bahia, to the amazement of beachgoers. The penguins were rescued by IFAW and the Centre for Marine Animal Recovery, with help from other organisations and Brazilian environmental authorities.

After months of care and feeding, the 372 surviving penguins were banded and loaded onto a C-130 Hercules military plane and transported to Cassino Beach, in Pelotas, in southern Brazil.

After a night’s rest, they were released into the South Atlantic Ocean, along with a few rescued adult penguins, with the hope that the adults would guide the younger ones safely home to Punta Tombo in Patagonia.

The Magellan penguin population is fragile, as their numbers have plummeted by about 20 percent, with about one million breeding pairs today, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society. The penguins are at risk due to the effects of climate change, tourism, oil leaks from tankers and shrimp nets. Particularly the ocean environment of the southern tip of Patagonia is changing, as the salinity of the water is decreasing, due to glaciers melting.

Punta Tombo is a tiny peninsula near the city of Rawson on the coast of the southern Argentine province of Chubut,. Its widest point is less than one kilometre, and it is teaming and crowded with penguins - and tourists - during breeding season. Punta Tombo, is home to the largest colony of Magellan penguins.
In 1982, the Punta Tombo colony was saved from Japanese commercial interests, intending to slaughter the birds and use their pelts to make golf gloves. The area was turned into a penguin preserve and research centre.

This an extract of an article published by IPS-Inter Press Service

Photo's by: tabernash, benune, TrekNature

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The Flying Brazilian - A Busy Bee

It is a public secret that President Lula, from the very beginning of his first term in office, indicated his intention to see the world before his second term in 2010 will end. That’s why he bought, immediately after his inauguration as president, a new plane (an Airbus A319CJ ).


In 2008, the President made 33 international trips, almost the same number as in 2007 (36). It is for sure that in 2009 the ‘AeroLula ', as his plane popularly is called, will make many international flight hours.
In the year before the presidential elections and the penultimate year of his second term, president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva packs his bags for many an international flight, to activate his strategy for Brazil as an active participant in the discussions on the measures to be taken to get the world economy off the ground. 2009 will be a year of intensive international discussions regarding the global economic crisis and Lula wants to use this situation to try to fortify his international prestige.
We made a photo-reportage of his most important trips in 2008.
......... continue reading and enjoy the photo reportage of Lula's travels

A Floating Shell - A Cosy and Effective Design

Brazil is not only carnival. It has a highly developed group of furniture manufacturers and as a consequence creative designers.
However this design is not in production yet, not yet anyway. It is the result of a Graduation Project of Letícia Barros, a student at the Universidade Estadual de Minas Gerais in Brazil.

Cleverly Letícia allies the versatility of plastic with the special features of the fibre of the piaçava. The piçava or piaçaba, officially known as the Attalea funifera Martius, is a palm tree, a native specie in the south of Bahia/Brazil. The popular name piaçava is of origin Tupi (an Indian language) and translates as a "fibrous plant". The Indians knew how to use the fibres and made many a household utensil from it. The first European colonists used the fibres to assemble ropes to secure their vessels. The ropes made from piaçava were seen as more reliable than the ones they had from Europe.
Producer of long fibres, resistant, rigid, smooth, with an impervious texture and high flexibility, the palm tree grows well in poor soil, just needing a hot and humid climate.

The construction of the chair is made from piaçava, while the seat itself is from plastic. The interaction between the plastic and the natural fibres of the piaçava creates a mixture of modern and rustic design, perfectly fitting in almost any interior. A cosy seat to relax.
The chair has a special feature as it is floating in water. Floating while reading a book or just burning in the sun. Don’t worry the fibre is waterproof.

Source: designdemoveis
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