Penguins in the Desert

February 28, 2018 By John E. Riutta in Newly Noted Books Tags: argentina, bird, boersma, book, conservation, desert, Ecology, News, Oregon, penguins, press, state, wagner

Penguins. In the … desert?

Indeed; it’s true. Not a hot desert, of course, but the windswept edge of coastal Patagonia – Punta Tombo, Argentina, to be exact – where every year hundreds of thousands of Magellanic Penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) congregate to breed and rear their young.

Not surprisingly, this huge gathering attracts a number of other creatures, including biologists like Dr. P. Dee Boersma. Eric Wagner followed Professor Boersma and team there and for six months in 2008 chronicled the lives of both the penguins and the researchers studying them. The result, Penguins in the Desert, will be published this April by Oregon State University Press.

John E. Riutta

Founder and publisher of The Well-read Naturalist. Inveterate autodidact. Has repeatedly been found out standing in many fields. Plays well with otters.

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