Dr. Dee Boersma featured in the NYT Magazine
Did you catch Dr. Boersma in the NYT Magazine? Read through the interview and see the stunning photos on the NYT Magazine website.
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Field updates: Argentina, September 2023
Written by Dr. Dee Boersma The ongoing pinniped (seals and walruses) die-off on Peninsula Valdés is catastrophic. Our contacts in Argentina–two local veterinarians (Marci Uhart and Ralph Vanstreels), and Claudia Campagna of WCS–tell us that hundreds and potentially thousands of sea lions and elephant seals have died. Avian flu (more widely known as bird flu) has devastated seabird populations throughout
Dr. Wagner’s latest essay: The Molt
Dr. Eric Wagner’s latest essay, The Molt, can be found on the website The Last Word On Nothing. Here’s a small excerpt: A living animal is alive all the time. Every moment matters in an unending stream of being, whether we are watching or not. This isn’t an end for the penguins. It isn’t a beginning, either. They are simply
Field updates: Argentina, April 2023
Thanks to the generous support of Zoo Augsburg in Germany, Dr. Ginger Rebstock and Dr. Eric Wagner were able to return to Punta Tombo for a couple of weeks in April. There, they put twenty satellite tags on penguins—ten females and ten males—that were about to start their post-breeding migration. From last year’s tagging effort, we know that females hug
Eric Wagner featured in NOAA webinar
Eric Wagner was featured in a webinar series co-sponsored by NOAA’s Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary and Feiro Marine Life Center. In this talk, Eric discussed the ongoing research on the rhinoceros auklets of Destruction Island (and beyond), and talked about what these furtive birds can show us about the larger world in which they try to make their living.
Field updates: Argentina, Winter 2023
In January and February of 2023 Dr. Dee Boersma, along with PhD students Katie Holt (Boersma Lab) and Erik Johansson (Abrahms Lab), spent six weeks in Punta Tombo to set up the remote scales that weigh penguins on their way in and out of the breeding area, and followed 19 penguins using GPS tags. The three of them were also able
Sue Moore confirmed for Commissioner by the US Senate
Congratulations to Dr. Sue Moore on joining the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission! The U.S. Senate confirmed Dr. Sue Moore, President Biden’s nominee for Commissioner of the Marine Mammal Commission, on December 22nd, 2022. Sue was sworn in by Commission Chair, Dr. Frances Gulland, on January 5th, 2023.
Odile Stern and the Penguin Collection
Odile Stern, a New York artist and renowned eclectic collector, donated her penguin collection to the Boersma Chair in Natural History and Conservation at the University of Washington (UW). In February 1987, Ms. Stern, traveled to Punta Tombo as part of volunteer group from UW and the Wildlife Conservation Society to help with penguin research. Every year for a decade,
Changing Climate In Argentina Is Killing Penguin Chicks: NPR
The world’s largest breeding colony of Magellanic penguins is seeing unprecedented deaths among young birds. A scientist who has spent 30 years studying the penguins says that climate change is to blame — triggering, among other things, more heat waves and wetter storms that kill fledglings. Source: Changing Climate In Argentina Is Killing Penguin Chicks : NPR