Galapagos Penguins may need 'condos' to ensure survival

by Amy Judd | April 28, 2009 at 01:33 pm

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The penguins that live on the Galapagos Islands are rare and endangered, and may need special shelters, kind of like 'condos' to save the species from the threat of global warming and the rising sea levels. The 'condos' would be in higher, cooler areas of the islands and would allow the penguins to nest and build up the species in a more comfortable and safe manner.

Giuseppe Di Carlo, head of the climate change programe says:

“The challenge that we’re facing is a high rate of extinction,” Di Carlo said from the conference. “This will have consequences for the islands’ human population as the economy here is based almost entirely on tourism and fishing.”

The Galapagos Islands near Ecuador, are one of the few places on the earth where both tropical and cold-water species can exist together, and it was the inspiration for Charles Darwin's 'On the Origin of Species'.
The islands are on the UNESCO list of threatened sites as growing tourism and changes in the temperatures and sea levels is threatening the wildlife. Foreign species are also endangering the native wildlife as they are not used to other species there.