Furious Fifties

The Falkland Islands are home to one of the greatest concentrations of seabirds on Earth.  Situated in the South Atlantic Ocean 300 miles east of the tip of South America, this archipelago of nearly 800 islands is home to four species of penguins (southern rockhopper, gentoo, magellanic, and king), plus black-browed albatross, imperial and rock cormorants.   Marine mammals including southern elephant seals and southern sea lions also breed here.  But this is no easy place to eke out an existence.  The band of prevailing westerly winds from 50 to 60 degrees South was named the Furious Fifties by sailors who braved these tumultuous seas during the 15th to 19th centuries.  Even in summer, hurricane-force storms can arrive without warning, lashing the islands and churning the waves into a frenzy.

Yet, the abundance of fish, squid, and krill in these fertile waters sustains large seabird colonies.  Gentoo penguins, in the largest concentrations anywhere on the planet, live here year-round.  Southern rockhopper penguins make their death-defying climbs up the slippery cliffs to raise their young in the summer months.  Elegant black-browed albatross perform stately courtship rituals, bowing and nuzzling with their long beaks.  In midsummer, the activity reaches a fever-pitch, as all of the species that coexist here race to reproduce before the winter storms return.  These teeming avian metropolises are one of Earth’s great wildlife spectacles.

Published in Nature’s Best magazine.