RT @Earth_News A wrecked ship has grounded on Nightingale Island, part of the Tristan da Cunha UK overseas territory in the South Atlantic, causing an oil slick around the island which is home to nearly half the world’s population of northern rockhopper penguins.
The shipwreck could also lead to any rats on-board colonising the island and posing a huge risk to the native seabird populations – whose chicks and eggs could be eaten by the invasive rodents
There are more than 200,000 northern rockhopper penguins on the island.
Richard Cuthbert, RSPB research biologist, said the population could be wiped out.
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