In 2007, only three years after the creation of Monte León National Park along the wild coastline of Argentine Patagonia, efforts to protect penguins took an unexpected turn. A female puma was slaughtering Magellanic penguins in droves. Some of these she would eat, while other surplus kills were left to rot. Before long, her cubs […]
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In 2007, only three years after the creation of Monte León National Park along the wild coastline of Argentine Patagonia, efforts to protect penguins took an unexpected turn. A female puma was slaughtering Magellanic penguins in droves. Some of these she would eat, while other surplus kills were left to rot. Before long, her cubs joined in the feast. All told, the family likely killed thousands of penguins over the course of a few nesting seasons.
Conservationists were shocked—what could have happened? Surely these kinds of attacks didn’t occur in the past. The park was created, at least in part, to protect the large penguin colony, which numbers in the tens of thousands. The aquatic birds even feature prominently on the park’s logo.
