The Kerguelen Islands are a small archipelago belonging to France but inhabited by a few dozen people, and for a very good reason: they are one of the most isolated places on Earth, to the point that in French they are simply known as “Islands of Desolation”.
Yet even this remote corner of the planet, 3,000 km from the nearest inhabited mainland, is attracting the attention of scientists: it is here that, as described in a study published in Communications Biologya new species of penguin has been discovered – the first to be described in more than a century.
From one species to four
Of volcanic origin, the Kerguelen are made up of a main island, Grande Terre, which occupies approximately 6,700 km2and another 300 other islands and islets. It goes without saying that the climate is freezing and very windy, and there are no native populations: the only inhabitants are the few dozen soldiers, researchers and technicians that France periodically sends on missions. Add to that the fact that the Desolation Islands can only be reached by sea and you’ll understand how a new species of penguin has managed to escape us all these years.
In reality we already knew that these islands were inhabited by penguins, in particular by the so-called pygoscelids (or gentoo to use the traditional name). The fact is that until recently we were convinced that pigoscelids all belonged to a single species of penguin, Pygoscelis papua.
A genetic analysis of the inhabitants of the Kerguelen, however, has highlighted important differences with the main species: the pygoscelids of the Desolation Islands have therefore become a new species, Pygoscelis kerguelensis.
Just discovered and already in danger
The study does not limit itself to describing what is the first new species of penguin discovered in over a century, but sheds light on the genetics of penguins in general. The most important change is that two populations previously classified as subspecies of P. papua they are “elevated” to finished species: it is about P. ellsworthi, P. taeniata and, precisely, P. kerguelensiswhich was previously not even recognized as a subspecies.
There remains an increasingly widespread problem when a new species is discovered: it may already be threatened by global warming. It applies to P. kerguelensis and it also applies to the other newly recognized species: according to the climate models used by the authors of the study, their habitat will reduce considerably by 2050, and the absence of other islands near the Kerguelen could leave them adrift on increasingly smaller pieces of land.
