Galapagos fur seal sleeping beneath the equatorial sun in Ecuador's Galapagos Islands nature preserve.
A group of Galapagos fur seals has for the first time in recorded history abandoned its world-famous nature preserve home to live in the steadily warming waters of coastal Peru.
The Organization for Research and Conservation of Aquatic Animals (ORCA) says about 30 of the marine mammals appear to have been attracted to ocean temperatures 1,000 miles to the southeast that are now similar to those in the Galapagos archipelago.
The Peruvian Geophysics Institute says ocean temperatures around the country’s Foca Island, where the fur seals now live, have warmed from about 63 degrees Fahrenheit to a little above 73 degrees over the past 10 years.
While individual fur seals have been observed to be stranded in Ecuador and Colombia in the past, this is the first time that an entire colony has moved, according to ORCA president Carlos Yaipen.
Photo: File