IFAW's Animal Rescue Blog

IFAW Haiti: IFAW's Dr. Dick Green recounts some remarkable stories from the front lines of the disaster

March of the Penguins: Rehabilitated Penguins head home

After a long journey from northern Brazil, 372 penguins were released back into the wild on Saturday, Oct 4th.  Watch this video taken by IFAW's Michael Booth as these fascinating birds find their way home.  Thank you to all of our supporters that make our work possible!

WATCH: IFAW's Valeria Ruoppolo on Brazilian Penguin Release

On October 2nd, more than 300 Magellanic penguins will be loaded onto a military plane and airlifted to Southern Brazil for their release to the wild. This historic event will be the largest ever release of penguins in South America. Watch IFAW's Valeria Ruoppolo explain the process of selecting penguins that are eligible for release just hours before the move.

IFAW Responders in Chile: Seventy-One Happy Endings

This report was filed this morning by the International Fund for Animal Welfare's Emergency Responder Michael Booth who is on the ground in Chile.

In the late hours of a cold Patagonian night, two trucks filled with 71 happy endings ended their long and hard journey. As the trucks approached their final destination, the loud barking sounds coming from their precious load pierced through the silence. The Chaiten dogs were here at last! This 30+ hour trip to Puerto Montt was only the final leg of a 16-day ordeal that began with a loud blast that came out of nowhere.

Banded Penguin One Of Ours!

This is an update on the Oil Spill IFAW responded to December - February of this year:

One of the biologists that we were working very close with in Argentina, Carla Poleschi - Wildlife Branch Director for the Argentine Government, has been surveying surrounding areas and islands for remnants of the oil spill that IFAW responded to two months ago. Sure enough, hundreds of dead, oiled penguins have been found in remote areas. This is a reminder of what effects an oil spill (small or large) can have on wild populations.

IFAW and local authorities spent two months rehabilitating birds that had been rescued from an oiled beach in Patagonia, however the animals we successfully rehabilitated and released were just a fraction of the total amount of birds affected.

This week, while traveling surroundings of Argentina, Carla informed our team that she had spotted several times one of the penguins we released on February 9th from Southern Argentina. The attached image of a jovial, sunning penguin is the lucky guy I'm talking about. This individual is currently located about 200 miles south of where it was released, residing with a colony waiting to molt around the area of Cabo Dos Bahias.

Carla has been able to identify the penguin because of the band it is wearing. We banded all the penguins that were released from our rehabilitation center just for that reason, so that we are able to find them among penguin colonies that are routinely studied.

IFAW Incident News Podcast - Mystery Patagonian Oil Spill - 1.2.08

The International Fund for Animal Welfare is responding to a mysterious oil spill off the coast of Argentina. IFAW's Oil Spill Emergency Response Manager Barbara Callahan took a few minutes to brief me on the situation and talks a bit about how complicated the process to clean oiled wildlife can be...

Click here to listen to the podcast!

Submitted by J.C. Bouvier

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