Images: Downy Magellanic Penguin Chicks Suffer From Hypothermia

Too big to protect

magellanic penguins

(Image credit: D. Boersma/U of Washington)

Wet chick with adult

penguin

(Image credit: D. Boersma/U of Washington)

Rainwater has seeped into this chick's down, but runs off the waterproof plumage of its parent.

Wet chick

penguins

(Image credit: D. Boersma/U of Washington)

Two chicks in a burrow with a parent. Burrows provide a shelter from rain, but if they are not in a prime location or if they are poorly built, then they can pool with water and become a dangerous place for the chicks.

Dry chick

penguin

(Image credit: D. Boersma/U of Washington)

This chick has found refuge in a burrow, where the water is still shallow enough to not wet its downy plumage.

Chicks die of hypothermia

(Image credit: D. Boersma/U of Washington)

Three chicks suffer from hypothermia and die after a rainstorm.

Researcher with curious penguin

(Image credit: P. Garcia Borboroglu)

Dee Boersma has been studying this colony of Magellanic penguins for nearly 30 years.

Laura Poppick
Live Science Contributor
Laura Poppick is a contributing writer for Live Science, with a focus on earth and environmental news. Laura has a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a Bachelor of Science degree in geology from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. Laura has a good eye for finding fossils in unlikely places, will pull over to examine sedimentary layers in highway roadcuts, and has gone swimming in the Arctic Ocean.