Most were Magellan penguins, which migrate northward at this time of year in search of food in warmer waters.

Autopsies of the penguins revealed that their stomachs were entirely empty, indicating they probably starved to death, according to Thiago do Nascimento, a biologist at Brazil’s Peruibe Aquarium.

He and others say that stronger currents or cooler-than-normal waters may have caused the penguins’ food sources to dwindle.

Or overfishing could have made the fish and squid more scarce, Nascimento said.

Penguins often get lost, and a handful of them die of starvation each year as they end up along the Brazilian coastline, far from their normal habitats.

“What worries us this year, is the absurdly high number of penguins that have appeared dead in a short period of time,” Nascimento told reporters.

Two years ago, more than 400 of the birds were found dead on the tropical beaches of Rio de Janeiro. Some of the 1,000 surviving penguins were eventually airlifted back to the cooler climes of Patagonia by the International Fund for Animal Welfare and other groups.

Photo: Institute of Environment and Natural Resources