Peru s arid coastline is home to one of
the world s great natural spectacles.

In Punta San Juan, where the desert meets
the sea, the seabirds reign.

These are like some of the largest aggregations
of seabirds in the world.

And they aren t alone thousands of South
American sea lions and fur seals add to the

impressive cacophony of sounds.

You can find so many numbers of animals in
a small place.

It's so unique.

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.

Punta San Juan is the most important breeding
colony for Humboldt penguins in Peru.

We can have 2000 breeding pairs reproducing
at the same time.

Humboldt penguins are very charismatic.

The reason why Humboldt penguins are living
so far north near the tropics is because they

live in an environment with cold water.

These flightless birds may look adorably goofy
on land, but they are highly adapted for life

at sea.

They are like torpedo-shaped seabirds It's
like they fly underwater and they can reach

high speeds, they are very, very fast swimmers.

What is life like for a desert penguin?

And what challenges do these animals face
in today s ever-changing world?

Major funding for this program was provided
by the Batchelor Foundation, encouraging people

to preserve and protect America s underwater
resources and by the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations,

strengthening America s future through education.

Additional funding was provided by The William
J. and Tina Rosenberg Foundation and by the

Do Unto Others Trust.

This is an avian domain.

Located in Peru s southern Ica province,
Punta San Juan is part of the Peruvian government s

national reserve network of 33 islands and
peninsulas.

This reserve s objective is protecting seabirds
and marine mammals.

Especially seabirds that produce guano.

Initially this all started just for the guano
birds.

To have more guano and be able to export and
sell this commodity.

This was a very important economic activity
in Peru in the past.

After a while we also started taking into
consideration other species.

So there were laws to avoid, for instance,
hunting penguins and protecting fur seals,

sea lions.

Guano - the poop produced in large quantities
by guano birds like guanay cormorants and

Peruvian pelicans and boobies, is harvested
commercially for use as fertilizer.

Peru is the largest guano producer in the
world, and its guano reserves are co-managed

by two government agencies the Agriculture
Ministry s AGRORURAL which monitors the

guano birds and oversees the harvest process,
and the Environmental Ministry s SERNANP,

which is in charge of managing the reserves.

At Punta San Juan, these two agencies work
in partnership with scientists from the Punta

San Juan Program, a long-term monitoring and
field research project.

Around the 80s, Dr. Patricia Majluf started
researching fur seal ecology and population

dynamics here at Punta San Juan.

Later, researchers came not only to study
fur seals, but also penguins.

Field coordinator Marco Carde a is passionate
about the Humboldt penguins.

He s been monitoring the local colony since
2001.

We do weekly counts to see how the population
is doing over the years, and then we can make

annual, seasonal and overall comparisons.

The cold Humboldt current is what makes this
region one of the most productive marine ecosystems

in the world.

As trade winds push the Pacific ocean s
upper layer of water offshore, it s replaced

with colder, nutrient-rich waters that well
up from the deep.

These nutrients fuel plankton growth near
the surface, which forms the base of this

vibrant marine food chain.

Punta San Juan is special because it's close
to the core upwelling system of the Humboldt

current.

The distance from the coast to where food
is available is fairly short.

This allows the animals to return for mating
and breeding.

At Punta San Juan, Humboldt penguins have
two breeding periods each year.

One starts in April going until July, and
the other one goes from August or September

until December.

At Punta San Juan Humboldt penguins breed
in three different types of nests.

The first ones are on the edge of these clifftops,
in areas where there is a lot of guano.

The other type of nest they use is what we
call a burrow.

They are like holes with tunnels inside.

And finally, we have a nest that appear between
rocks and boulders on crevices.

Given the penguin s skittish nature, scientists
monitor the superficial nests from a safe

distance.

Humboldt penguins are very scared of humans.

And if a researcher approached these nests,
it will create a chaos and a lot of these

nests will be lost because if they leave the
nest content without protection, seagulls,

turkey vultures will predate on them.

We monitor them with help of a telescope.

We count the nests, we count the number of
pairs breeding there, the number of adults,

the number of chicks and this help us understand
their breeding cycle and also their population

trends.

Humboldt penguins tend to be monogamous, and
after mating the female lays two eggs, roughly

four days apart.

These two eggs are cared for by both parents.

They take turns staying with the eggs during
the 40 day incubation period.

Once the eggs hatch, both parents take turns
feeding the chicks over a 72 to 75 day period.

To find food, groups of penguins leave their
nests each morning to make the long journey

across the barren desert and down steep cliffs
to reach the sea.

Along the way, the hesitant birds frequently
stop to contemplate their next move, or get

scared and turn around.

And sometimes, aggressive and raucous neighbors
block the path.

Once the penguins reach the water, it s
time for a bath.

The birds need to preen and streamline their
feathers to insure proper insulation before

venturing out to feed in the cold water.

Meanwhile, the nesting colony is a loud and
busy place.

Patient parents guard their nests and chicks
while they wait for their mates to return

from the sea.

The daily reunion is a happy occasion marked
with an elaborate ritual.

Soon, the hungry chicks will start begging
for food, which the returning parent regurgitates

for them.

Eventually the parents stop feeding the chicks,
so the chicks can leave the nest with their

parents, or with other adults, to venture
on their first trip out to

the sea.

To gather more in-depth information about
breeding penguins, experts visit certain nests

once a week for a more hands-on approach.

We select nests that are better protected
or covered, where the adult wouldn t be

able to escape or abandon the eggs or the
chicks.

The scientists check on the embryonic chick
development inside the eggs, and they also

work up parents and chicks.

So, this is a Humboldt penguin chick, it s
about four or five weeks old, and you can

see it has a specific type of feathers that
only chicks have, it s not waterproof, these

kinds of feathers.

We measure their flippers, their feet and
their beak.

Tape on the chicks flippers indicates which
one hatched first.

Scientists also weigh the animals

This one is one kilo and 300 grams.

and record similar measurements of the
parents, as well as check their microchips

for identification.

It allows us to observe any changes in the
incubation period or the chicks growth

rate.

By weighing and measuring the chick we obtain
information about the parents feeding.

Tagging the animals allows us to track the
age of individuals, the couple s faithfulness

as well as their breeding times.

The handling takes no more than 7 or 8 minutes.

We are the only breeding colony that has such
a long-term data set.

We have at least 18 years of information collected
using the same methodologies.

After the adults reproductive period ends
in December, they undertake a very long trip

to over-feed themselves, to prepare for the
coming molt.

The three week long molt allows the penguins
to replace their worn feathers with new plumage.

This will ensure proper insulation when they
eventually return to the sea to replenish

their fat reserves and start the breeding
cycle again.

During this molt, they stay on the beaches,
which is the best time to count the penguins

along the entire coastline.

In the 1850s, naturalists visiting guano islands
estimated that the population ranged in the

hundreds of thousands.

Because of drastic declines and ongoing fluctuations
since then, the International Union for Conservation

of Nature currently lists Humboldt penguins
as vulnerable.

Humboldt penguins aren t well studied overall,
and experts say it s difficult to estimate

the population across the penguin s entire
breeding range, which runs from Foca Island

in northern Peru to Metalqui Island in southern
Chile.

This is due in part because of the challenges
that come with counting animals along the

remote and rugged coastline, but also because
of inconsistencies in counting methods between

Peru and Chile.

The Chileans have conducted the census while
penguins were breeding, and we ve done it

during the molting period.

In the future, both Chile and Peru needs to
have a unique protocol for counting so we

can compare our numbers and have a total account
of Humboldt penguins in the whole range.

In 2015, there were 20,000 penguins in Peru.

The number has been decreasing, and Peru s
population is now down to 9,300 individuals

in Peru, according to the latest counts from
2019.

Penguin population numbers are prone to fluctuate
because of changes in food availability caused

by El Ni o events.

During El Ni o years, the winds weaken, causing
the upwelling of cold, nutrient-rich waters

to cease.

The consequent warming of the ocean surface
further weakens the winds and strengthens

El Ni o.

Major prey species such as anchovy move to
deeper waters and further south.

So that means that the predators like penguins,
sea lions and all the species that depend

on the anchovies are in crisis because anchovy
disappear.

They cannot hunt them because they are either
too deep or too far away.

Penguins also face many man-made threats that
can negatively impact their population numbers.

Historically, guano harvesting had the biggest
impact since penguins rely on guano for their

nesting material.

And the guano campaigns extracted all the
guano with no regards for the breeding areas

of this species.

The use of guano as fertilizer traces all
the way back to the Incas, but it didn t

really start taking off commercially until
the 1850s, when increased demand from Europe

turned guano harvesting into
a lucrative enterprise.

Guano workers used to hunt or poach the penguins
to be sold in the local market for food.

And also a lot of disturbance on the penguin
colony.

So they harvested the guano where the penguins
were nesting.

Starting in 2001, the Punta San Juan Program
began working closely with the Peruvian government

to make the local guano harvest there more
sustainable.

For example, they no longer harvest in an
area that extends 15 to 20 meters inland from

the cliff, so the penguins have guano for
their nests.

And in 2007 and in 2012, improvements were
made by planning the harvest around the guano

birds and the penguins breeding seasons.

To provide the penguins with safe passage
along their daily feeding paths, visual barriers

were placed strategically to conceal the workers
from the skittish birds view.

And that's been very successful.

I think the conditions are getting better
and programs at Punta San Juan can be used

as models for others sites for guano harvesting.

In addition to humans, a number of natural
predators also pose a threat to the penguins

on land.

In the 1940s walls were built around peninsulas
like Punta San Juan to increase guano production

by creating artificial islands where the birds
could breed without disruption from people

or other terrestrial predators.

Today these walls are starting to crumble,
giving stealthy hunters a way in

Lately, one of the concerns we ve had is
that foxes are coming in much more frequently.

This definitely has an impact, not just on
the penguins, but on the other species like

the guano birds.

One fox here can eat 20 penguins, 40 penguins
in a year.

And this might sound a small number, but this
is not sustainable in time.

Captured foxes are relocated elsewhere, but
they aren t the only predators that have

found their way onto the reserve

So this area are nests of the penguins and
also the Inca turns and we find the rats here.

Lyanne Ampuero works as a research assistant
for the Punta San Juan Program.

In 2014, while working on a study on Inca
terns, she discovered signs of rats near the

bird s burrows.

I discover like forty nests with eggs and
were all of them were predated.

What I immediately do is set traps.

The next morning I trap a couple of rats.

That was really like shocking for everybody.

If penguins leave their nest, rats will also
eat their eggs or attack chicks.

To eradicate the problem, Lyanne is experimenting
with a variety of traps and plans to use a

type of poison that only impacts the rats,
but not the seabirds which may feed on their

carcasses.

And predators aren t the penguins only
current threats.

Across their range, habitat loss, pollution
and overfishing all pose issues.

The anchovy fishery is very important for
the Peruvian economy.

Every year between four or five or six millions
of tons are fished by the commercial fishery.

And the effect on penguins and other seabirds
is direct.

So less food, less numbers of
animals.

While the reserves offer protection on land,
the animals are largely unprotected while

at sea.

Here in Punta San Juan, it's only protected
200 meters from the coast.

And that's it.

To better understand the penguins life
at sea, and suggest future protections, scientists

have started studying their movements and
foraging behavior.

Dr. Carlos Zavalaga, has studied penguins
off and on for the last 30 years.

In the fall of 2019, he and his students conducted
seabird research on Gua ape Norte, a remote

guano island in the north of Peru.

Now we have about quarter million of Peruvian
boobies here on Gua ape Norte and about 150,000

guanay cormorants.

So they are breeding in large numbers.

There are probably around a thousand Humboldt
penguins on the Island.

Carlos is also conducting a study that looks
at the interaction of penguins with fisheries

that use nets close to the islands where penguins
nest and rest.

One of the major reasons why Humboldt penguins
are in low numbers, at least in comparison

to historical records, is because they die
as a consequence of entanglement in fishing

nets.

Between 92, 93 and 94 about a thousand of
penguins died entangled in fishing nets around

the Punta
San Juan area.

And we don't know how often it happens.

It's very difficult to monitor and so what
we want to know is where the penguins are

going when they are feeding.

And at the same time where are these fishing
boats fishing, based on interviews to fishermen

and other sorts of data.

To identify areas where the penguins might
overlap with the fishing vessels, Carlos attached

specialized data loggers on nesting penguins
at Pachacamac Island, near Peru s capital

Lima.

All of them need to have small chicks we need
to be sure that the penguin will come back

to the nest because we need to recover the
device.

And then we take the penguin out from the
nest and attach the logger on the lower back

using a waterproof tape.

And then we release again the penguin in the
nest.

These loggers are capable of recording depth
and location every 10 seconds, giving experts

an idea of where the animals travel to feed.

We return two or three days later and again
recapture the penguin and retrieve the logger.

And then we return the penguin to the nest,
then we are ready to download information

to the computer.

Past tagging of penguins on Pachacamac Island
showed the animals traveling in all directions.

But the most important finding is that the
two mile protected area around Isla Pachacamac

is not enough to protect them.

They go 20, 30 miles away looking for food.

And this area, just watching the preliminary
data, is also an important area for fishing.

We need more data of course, but with this
preliminary results, we can see that the area

of overlapping between penguins and the fisheries
is very high.

Carlos says once he has collected all the
necessary data he plans to present his findings

to the government, so it can consider extending
protected areas where fishing isn t allowed

or require fishing gear that minimizes the
bycatch of penguins.

Penguins have long captured the hearts and
minds of people around the world.

And like us, they depend on a healthy land
and sea to survive.

If they disappear, that means that we are
changing things in such a way that it could

affect the way we live.

This is like a mirror for us, if they are
well there are indicators that the whole system

is well.

Major funding for this program was provided
by the Batchelor Foundation, encouraging people

to preserve and protect America s underwater
resources and by the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations,

strengthening America s future through education.

Additional funding was provided by The William
J. and Tina Rosenberg Foundation and by the

Do Unto Others Trust.