Researchers in Chile have designed special vests for penguins to help them recover during El Nino SANTIAGO, Chile -- Researchers in Chile have designed an unlikely new garment for injured penguins — snug red vests threaded with copper and zinc that they hope will help the aquatic birds heal faster. Veterinarians have found success in the past using such suits to treat injured dogs and cats. Now they're trying out the technology on Humboldt penguins in Chile, home to the largest concentration of the vulnerable species.
The experiment comes as Chile's Humboldt penguin population declines sharply. Chilean and international researchers surveying the country's major breeding colonies in 2024 and 2025 found a 63% drop in active nests compared to the same sites three years earlier. The birds face mounting threats, including entanglement in fishing nets, plastic pollution, disease outbreaks and competition with fisheries for food.
Now Humboldt penguins also find themselves in the cross hairs of one of the world’s most disruptive weather patterns, El Nino, which brings unusually warm waters to parts of the Pacific Ocean, making the cold-water fish that they rely on harder to find. Hunger forces penguin parents to travel farther afield for food and leave their nests behind. Wildlife clinics across Chile receive distressed penguins stranded along Chile's coast, some cut by fishing nets or boat propellers, others weakened by a lack of food, said Tomás Pino, a veterinarian who runs Conservación Humboldt, a nonprofit that rehabilitates injured marine animals in the country's north.
Treating those injuries can be tricky. Penguins often twist their long necks to peck at gashes and pull out their own stitches, Pino said. The vests prevent them from doing that while putting copper — of which Chile is the world’s top producer — to work as a salve.
Copper and zinc woven into the fabric inhibit the growth of bacteria and fungi. Zinc also stimulates the formation of new blood vessels, helping damaged tissue heal faster.
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