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National Geographic
17-04-2025
- Science
- National Geographic
What the ‘trash heap' penguins of Argentina are teaching us about survival
For more than 60 million years, penguins of all kinds—including the opportunistic Magellanic penguin—have been driven by an evolutionary urge to reach beyond their boundaries. Today, many are surfacing in the most unlikely places. DIVING DEEP Chinstrap and gentoo penguins, shown here near Danco Island in Antarctica, regularly plunge to depths of over 100 feet on foraging runs. PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVID DOUBILET, National Geographic Image Collection When Pablo 'Popi' Borboroglu first visited a remote stretch of shoreline along the eastern coast of Patagonia, in 2008, the National Geographic Explorer was surprised to find penguins making a home there. The Argentine biologist was responding to a call from a nearby rancher who had seen several of the flightless birds on his property. When he arrived, Borboroglu found trash, broken glass, abandoned cars, and burned-out campfires on the ground. 'The place was a disaster,' he recalls. 'It was full of garbage.' Amid the squalor, however, under bushes and in small, cavelike burrows, he discovered something astonishing: 12 Magellanic penguins living among the debris. Each seabird was about one and a half feet tall, with a distinctive white band encircling its eyes and neck. While Magellanic penguins are known to breed in and around South America on rocky, sandy beaches before migrating each winter to the open ocean as far north as Brazil and Peru, the nearest established colony was located more than 80 miles south. Yet these intrepid travelers had arrived and coupled up, a sign that they were breeding on a beach teeming with hazards. The brown down feathers of king penguin chicks, seen here at Good Hope Bay on Marion Island, in the southern Indian Ocean, aren't waterproof, but the added insulation helps protect the birds from the cold until they molt around 10 months, when their sleek black and white feathers come in. PHOTOGRAPH BY THOMAS PESCHAK, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC IMAGE COLLECTION Borboroglu worked quickly, assessing the condition of the colony and freeing one bird that was entangled in plastic, and began the longer process of painstakingly cleaning and securing the area. The emerging colony not only survived but raised chicks, returning the next spring. Scientists have various theories as to why a so-called founder group like this ventures beyond familiar nesting grounds. But for Borboroglu, who went on to create the Global Penguin Society, an international conservation group, the new colony exemplifies the adaptability and resilience of all 18 penguin species, which inhabit some of nature's harshest environments, even as they continue to face new challenges in our changing world. 'They are so brave and determined,' he says of penguins as a whole. 'They're amazing.' A Galápagos penguin swims alongside a green sea turtle and a marine iguana in the cool, clear water near Fernandina Island. PHOTOGRAPH BY TUI DE ROY, NATURE PICTURE LIBRARY Penguins are indeed amazing creatures. Their comical waddle, tuxedo-like appearance, and endearing parental instincts make them quintessential conservation icons. But these same characteristics also point to some of the ways they've evolved to confront extreme conditions with remarkable adaptability and grit. The first penguins appeared roughly 60 million years ago on what is now New Zealand. Some scientists believe the absence of natural predators allowed the birds to evolve away from flight and toward more agility in the ocean. Over time, they developed ample stores of fat and a dense, impermeable layer of feathers to withstand the cold; stunted wings serving as flippers to propel them underwater with stunning speed and efficiency; and distinctive black-and-white feather patterns to confuse predators. Early penguins rode the currents across oceans, adapting to the new places where they landed. Emperor and Adélie penguins, for instance, settled in the unforgiving climate of Antarctica, and they have a thicker layer of body fat, scalelike feathers, and clawlike feet especially suited to gain traction on the ice. Galápagos penguins ended up on a chain of islands off the coast of Ecuador, becoming the only species found at the Equator. They now have smaller frames and thinner layers of plumage, which serve them well in the warmer climate. Historically, Magellanic penguins lived on islands off the coast of South America, but after sheep ranchers eradicated mainland predators such as pumas and foxes, the birds established colonies there too. 'Penguins vote with their feet,' says National Geographic Explorer Dee Boersma, a renowned penguin expert at the University of Washington. 'They go where the food is.' But no matter how far they roam, many of the animals now face the same issues. About half the world's penguins are threatened with extinction, and last year the African penguin became the first to be classified as critically endangered. Today the threats come from sea and land alike. In the ocean, penguins must run a gauntlet of oil spills, algal blooms, fishing nets, and plastic pollution while warming waters and overfishing deplete their prey. On shore, where penguins mate and raise their chicks, they encounter hazards ranging from declining Antarctic sea ice to coastal development and introduced or resurgent predators. Over the past century, as penguin numbers faltered, the global conservation community and individual nations moved to safeguard the birds, banning egg harvesting and creating protected areas, allowing embattled populations a chance at continued survival. In the years since, conservationists like Borboroglu and Boersma have lobbied to create more protected areas for nesting and regulate shipping routes to reduce penguins' potential exposure to oil spills. From scuba diving to set-jetting (How a penguin "massacre" led to historic new protections in Argentina.) Royal penguins, named for yellow plumes resembling crowns, are native to the Southern Ocean's Macquarie Island, where they live in large colonies, boosting their chances of finding a mate. Groupings have upwards of 500,000 breeding pairs. PHOTOGRAPH BY DOUG GIMESY, NATURE PICTURE LIBRARY One startling finding among scientists is that penguins are no longer evolving as fast, limiting their ability to keep pace with the world around them. A recent study showed that penguins now have the slowest evolutionary rates of all birds. Still, some appear adept at leveraging their best traits and behaviors to continue pressing into new territory. Researchers have discovered that emperor penguin colonies relocate when sea ice in one area is no longer reliable, and satellite imagery recently revealed previously unknown colonies in Antarctica. Meanwhile, king penguins, smaller cousins to the emperors, are in decline in some of their habitat but rebounding in other places, after decades of being harvested for oil. And gentoos, closely related to Adélies, are following available food as the Southern Ocean warms and sea ice clears, allowing them to more easily hunt and nest in new areas of the Antarctic Peninsula. 'We're seeing new colonies established further and further south,' says Gemma Clucas, a researcher with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The handful of Magellanic penguins that once popped up on the trash-strewn beach in Patagonia appear to have inspired others to settle in the colony. As Borboroglu worked with landowners and the local government to create a 35,000-acre wildlife refuge, more and more penguins arrived each year. Over 8,000 penguins now nest here. 'Its growth has been remarkable,' he says. 'It shows that nature can thrive if given a chance.' See more on Popi Borboroglu and his conservation work in National Geographic's upcoming series "Secrets of the Penguins", streaming April 21 on Disney+ and Hulu. A version of this story appears in the May 2025 issue of National Geographic magazine. Hannah Nordhaus, a Boulder-based National Geographic Explorer, has written for outlets such as Scientific American and Smithsonian. In last month's magazine she wrote about imperiled sturgeons. The nonprofit National Geographic Society, committed to illuminating and protecting the wonder of our world, funded Explorer Pablo Borborgolu's work. Learn more about the Society's support of Explorers.
National Geographic
07-02-2025
- General
- National Geographic
Nubian kings ruled Egypt for less than 100 years. Their influence lasted centuries.
(Epic engineering rescued colossal ancient Egyptian temples from floodwaters.) In 2003 these statues of Nubian kings were found in pieces, buried in the ceremonial city of Dokki Gel, near Kerma. Now restored, they are on display in the Kerma Museum in Sudan. National Geographic Image Collection During the era known as the Third Intermediate Period (ca 1075–715 B.C.), Egypt's government was in the throes of political chaos and decline. Nubia was left fairly free of pharaonic intervention, and several new, independent Kushite kingdoms flourished. In one of these, near the Fourth Cataract, a dynasty of rulers emerged in the mid-eighth century B.C., this time establishing the kingdom's capital at Napata and a necropolis at nearby El Kurru. The rulers of this Kushite kingdom would eventually govern those who had once controlled them, even becoming pharaohs of Egypt themselves. The Shabaka Stone The Shabaka Stone, attributed to Nubian king Shabaka, is now in the British Museum. British Museum/Scala, Florence This black basalt slab which has greatly enhanced scholars' understanding of Egyptian theology, was inscribed on the orders of the 25th-dynasty Kushite king Shabaka. It contains the only known documented version of the Memphite Theology, a religious text underpinning the Egyptian vision of creation, which describes how the god Ptah created humans. Shabaka is said to have discovered an old papyrus bearing the text and ordered it transcribed onto the stela. The object reflects the eagerness of Kushite kings to convince Egyptians, especially in Memphis, of Nubian respect for Egyptian culture. It was likely later used as a millstone, causing the central hole and radial incisions, and was brought to the British Museum in 1805, where its faint inscriptions were translated almost a century later. Taharqa, the conqueror This new Kushite kingdom was founded by two kings, Alara and Kashta. Kashta's son Piye later pushed the empire's boundaries as far as Elephantine, or present-day Aswan, thereby bringing Lower Egypt under Kushite control. Piye also set his sights on Upper Egypt and, around 727 B.C., launched a military expedition in which he took Hermopolis and sacked Memphis. But Piye returned to Napata without consolidating Kushite dominion over Egypt. That mission would be accomplished by his successors Shabaka (aka Shabaqo) and Shebitku (aka Shabataka). As representatives of a new Egyptian dynasty, the 25th, these Nubian kings moved their capital to Thebes and secured control of the country as far north as the Nile Delta. This statuette depicting the feline goddess Bastet, inscribed with the name of eighth-century B.C. Kushite king Piye, is in the Louvre Museum, Paris. H. Lewandowski/RMN-Grand Palais This statue of Taharqa is now in the Sudan National Museum in Khartoum. Age Fotostock The most renowned pharaoh of the 25th dynasty was undoubtedly Taharqa, brother of Shebitku. Many scholars believe Taharqa is the Kushite king Tirhakah, mentioned in the Bible's Book of Isaiah regarding the invasion that Assyrian king Sennacherib launched against Judah: 'Now Sennacherib received a report that Tirhakah, the king of Cush, was marching out to fight against him' (2 Kings 19:9). Save $5 on a Nat Geo Digital Subscription Your interests, backed by facts and science—now only $19 SAVE NOW (Rival to Egypt, the Nubian kingdom of Kush exuded power and gold.) Taharqa makes an offering to the falcon god Hemen in this bronze- and gold-leaf statuette from the seventh century B.C. Scala, Florence From Egyptian sources, it appears that under the reign of Shebitku, Taharqa had been charged with supporting the kingdom of Judah against the Assyrians. In the end, Jerusalem did not fall into Assyrian hands, a fact the Bible attributes to the Lord answering Hezekiah's prayers: 'The angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp . . . So Sennacherib, king of Assyria, broke camp and withdrew' (2 Kings 19:35-36). This early seventh-century B.C. head is believed to depict the Kushite pharaoh Shebitku, the third king of the 25th dynasty. It is now in the Nubian Museum in Aswan, Egypt. Album This ram's head, a symbol of Amun, is part of a necklace for a Nubian king, made in the seventh century B.C. Kenneth Garrett Taharqa, the builder Taharqa insisted his claim to power was not only hereditary but also divine. On a stela from the temple of Amun at Kawa, he declares: 'I received the diadem in Memphis after the falcon went up to heaven and my father Amun had ordered for me that every land . . . be placed under my feet.' This alludes to the fact that the pharaoh had succeeded his predecessor after his death. The identity of the king associated with a falcon—in other words, with the god Horus (who is often linked with another falcon-god, Hemen)—isn't specified, but the phrase likely refers to Shebitku, who, according to the same stela, 'loved him [Taharqa] more than all his [other] brothers.' In honor of Amun Gregory Manchess/National Geographic Image Collection This illustration, by artist Gregory Manchess for National Geographic in 2008, re-creates a religious parade led by the pharaoh Taharqa in Jabal Barkal. The procession features the sacred boat with the image of the god Amun on board. It has just set off from the temple of Amun, built at the foot of the sacred mountain Jabal Barkal, whose distinctive pinnacle was seen as having the shape of a rearing uraeus, an upright cobra. Just below the mountain's summit, the king had ordered a panel engraved with a gold-plated inscription bearing his name, to commemorate his victories over enemies from the east and west. The dual uraei on Taharqa's headdress represent the Two Lands (Upper and Lower Egypt) over which he reigns. As high priest of Amun, Taharqa wears a leopard-skin cloak and carries a staff. Behind him walk his wives rattling sistrums. During Taharqa's reign, which lasted almost 26 years, the pharaoh commissioned numerous monuments and religious buildings. In Thebes he added new spaces to the Great Temple of Amun at Karnak, notably a structure called the kiosk of Taharqa in the first courtyard. He had the sanctuary of Amun at Napata rebuilt and constructed a temple to Amun at Kawa in about 680 B.C. In the Kawa sanctuary, a commemorative inscription reads: 'Mark you, my mind is [set] on [re] building the temple-compound of my father, Amun-Re of Kawa, because it is built of brick [only] and covered with earth.' Necropolis of El Kurru Rulers of the Nubian capital Napata were buried at El Kurru, primarily from about 850 to 650 B.C. Pictured here is the largest pyramid at the site, built around 325 B.C., well after the royal necropolis's prime. Eric Lafforgue/Alamy/ACI Taharqa had his burial pyramid built in Nuri, on the opposite bank from the necropolis at El Kurru, where his ancestors lay. What prompted the location change is unclear, but it's likely that the site of the necropolis was linked to Jabal Barkal, the 'Pure Mountain' of Napata, a natural sandstone butte that dominated the Nubian capital. The pinnacle of this mound, reaching a height of almost 250 feet, was said to resemble a rearing cobra, or uraeus, a symbol of royalty. When seen from Jabal Barkal on Egyptian New Year's Day, the sun seemed to rise directly over the pinnacle of the pyramid of Taharqa. Since the holiday coincided with the annual regenerative flooding of the Nile, this linked Taharqa with not only the sun god Re but also Osiris, the god of the afterlife and fertility. (These mighty pyramids were built by one of Africa's earliest civilizations.) Miraculous deeds Taharqa makes an offering to Amun-Re in this seventh-century B.C. relief from the Shrine of Taharqa, now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Age Fotostock The Temple of Amun-Re at Kawa,discovered in 1931 in present-day Sudan, contains stelae that celebrate Taharqa's deeds as pharaoh of Egypt. One presents him as a warrior, 'who sends forth his arrow that he may have power over chiefs, who tramples evil under foot in pursuit of his enemies, with belligerence in his strong arm, who slaughters hundreds of thousands, at the sight of whom every face is astonished.' Another relates how Taharqa brought about a miraculous flood through his petition to Amun-Re: 'His Majesty had been praying for an inundation from his father Amun-Re, . . . in order to prevent famine . . . When the time for the rising of the Inundation came, it continued rising greatly each day and it passed many days rising at the rate of one cubit every day . . . the land was (again) Primeval Waters.' Legacy of Taharqa This marble stela, now in the British Museum, depicts the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, who drove Taharqa from Egypt. Scala, Florence The death of Taharqa, in 664 B.C., marked the decline of Nubian rule over Egypt. Taharqa had already lost control of Lower Egypt to Ashurbanipal in 667 B.C. Taharqa's successor, his nephew Tanutamani, briefly regained control of Upper Egypt before being defeated once again in 663 B.C. by Ashurbanipal. Tanutamani was forced to return to Nubia, where he remained until his death. After the fall of the 25th dynasty, the new kingdom of Meroë was established in Nubia, tending the flame of Egyptian culture until the fourth century A.D. There, the temple of Naga, where Nubian divinities such as the lion-god Apedemak are represented alongside the Egyptian god Horus, exemplifies the syncretic culture the Kushites fostered and the ways in which Nubia and Egypt are forever linked. Jabal Barkal When the Egyptian pharaohs of the 18th dynasty conquered Nubia, they ordered the construction of several temples dedicated to their state god, Amun. The most important of these was erected at the foot of Jabal Barkal, a mountain the Egyptians viewed as sacred, considering it a home to Amun. After the Egyptian withdrawal from Nubia, the dynasty of Kushite kings that emerged in the eighth century B.C. took over the complex as a way to legitimize their power. Under the Napata kings and later, in the Meroitic period, new temples and palace enclosures were built, as shown in this drawing. Jean-Claude Golvin. Musée départemental Arles antique © Jean-Claude Golvin/Éditions Errance This story appeared in the January/February 2025 issue of National Geographic History magazine.
