Chile’s endangered Humboldt penguins risk further decline, scientists say

Chilean scientists warned of further risks to the world’s shrinking population of Humboldt penguins, one of the few species that live on rocky coastlands in more temperate regions, after officials declared the species endangered.

Chile’s Pacific coast is home to 80% of the world’s remaining Humboldt penguins, and scientists at the Universidad de Concepcion estimate that their numbers have dwindled to fewer than 20,000 from around 45,000 in the late 1990s.

International organizations consider the species vulnerable and prohibit commercial trade, but late last month Chile’s Environment Ministry reclassified the seabird as “endangered.” Biologists fear numbers will continue to decline.

Competition for food from commercial fishing as well as habitat loss, pollution, bird flu and the worseni