{"id":289430,"date":"2026-02-18T05:13:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T05:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/289430\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T05:13:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T05:13:11","slug":"conservation-dilemma-as-pumas-reclaim-national-park-and-feast-on-its-penguins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/289430\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Conservation dilemma\u2019 as pumas reclaim national park and feast on its penguins"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Published on
\n 17\/02\/2026 – 7:00 GMT+1\n <\/p>\n

Defenceless penguins are being killed en masse as puma populations recover in Monte Leon National Park in Argentina\u2019s ruthlessly wild Patagonia.<\/p>\n

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After cattle ranching was abandoned in the country\u2019s south in the 1990s, pumas began recolonising parts of their historical range. At the same time, Magellanic penguin<\/a> colonies have expanded from nearby islands to the mainland, where “terrestrial predators\u201d had previously been absent.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s resulted in what scientists are calling a \u201cconservation dilemma\u201d that could see penguin colonies dwindle in the region. Now, a study by Oxford University has quantified the risk of long-term penguin population survival.<\/p>\n

How pumas became these penguins\u2019 biggest threat<\/p>\n

Researchers from the Centro de Investigaciones de Puerto Deseado of the Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral and rangers from the Monte Leon National Park have been monitoring penguin populations in the park.<\/p>\n

Over four years (2007 to 2010) they counted the number of penguin carcasses attributed to puma predation. They then collaborated with Oxford University\u2019s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit to analyse the data.<\/p>\n

The new study, published in the Journal for Nature Conservation<\/a>, estimates that more than 7,000 adult penguins were killed over the four-year period, but most of them weren\u2019t fully eaten. This is around 7.6 per cent of the adult population.<\/p>\n

Lead author Melisa Lera says the number of carcasses showing signs of predation in the colony is \u201coverwhelming\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that they were left uneaten means pumas were killing more penguins than they required for food,\u201d she adds. \u201cThis is consistent with what ecologists describe as \u2018surplus killing\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is similar to domestic cats which can end up hunting more birds \u2013 even if they don\u2019t eat them \u2013 because they\u2019re abundant and vulnerable. <\/p>\n

Will penguins in Patagonia become extinct?<\/p>\n

Researchers carried out modelling on the data and concluded that pumas alone were \u201cunlikely\u201d to drive the colony at the national park to extinction.<\/p>\n

The penguins\u2019 future appears to be more sensitive to factors such as reproductive success<\/a> and juvenile survival \u2013 but high puma predation will exacerbate these outcomes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis study captures an emerging conservation challenge, where recovering carnivores are encountering novel prey,\u201d says co-author Dr Jorgelina Marino.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnderstanding how these dietary shifts affect both predators and prey is essential to inform conservation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the models identified breeding success and mortality of the juveniles as some of the key determinants of population viability, the authors highlight the need to understand how environmental factors such as nutrients, food and temperature \u2013 known to be influenced by climate change \u2013 may affect the penguins\u2019 reproductive success.<\/p>\n

The Park authorities continue to monitor puma and penguin populations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published on 17\/02\/2026 – 7:00 GMT+1 Defenceless penguins are being killed en masse as puma populations recover in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[8018,111,139,69,37660,27626,54831,147,406,4440],"class_list":{"0":"post-289430","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-argentina","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-patagonia","13":"tag-penguin","14":"tag-puma","15":"tag-science","16":"tag-wildlife","17":"tag-wildlife-conservation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}