what all of these interventions and changes would have on them.
“So then making nests and laying eggs is the most important thing?” Zeke asked.
“Yes. Absolutely. We’re trying to increase the numbers of these penguins. We estimate there are fewer than six hundred breeding pairs alive today, so they are at risk for being totally lost.” Jill felt the anxiety swirling through her. “We’re hoping these independent captivity programs can help save them from extinction. But we have to know that they are able to thrive in these environments. We’re experimenting with what those environments look like now. We have way more questions than answers. We’re trying to mimic their natural environments as much as possible, of course, but captivity is different from the wild no matter what. And just as A.J. had everything set up, he got sick and now that he’s passed, packing them up and moving them several states away could end up being detrimental. But we really don’t know.”
Zeke stepped in front of her and met her eyes directly. “Simple. Straightforward. You need these rock formations to be a certain way so the penguins will lay their eggs and make more penguins.”
Jill took a shaky breath. “Yes. At this moment, the most important thing is getting those rock formations right.”
Zeke gave her nod. “All I needed to know.”
Jill took another breath. This one deeper, where she actually felt it expand her lungs. He’d just cut through all the B.S.
She liked that.
She felt that all of the humans around and interacting with the penguins should understand their part of the bigger picture. But he had a point. If, at this moment before the penguins got here, they needed to have the habitat constructed as close to perfectly as they could, then she needed to communicate clearly what that meant.
“You okay?” Griffin asked her.
It took her a moment to pull her eyes from Zeke’s. “Um…no. I’m freaking out a little bit. There’s so much pressure here. I need to keep these penguins alive. First of all. Then I need to make sure that they thrive. I have three breeding pairs and two juveniles who will hopefully breed eventually as well, and I need to get at least one of them, if not a couple of them, knocked up soon.”
Griffin chuckled. “There’s no reason to think that it won’t work here, though, right?”
“This project with private ownership is fairly new. We don’t have any reason to think it won’t work, but we actually don’t have any data to prove that it will. Will limiting their interactions with humans be better? Will having them in private, quiet spaces be better? Would they be better off if we could just have protected areas actually in the Galápagos? I mean, that seems obvious, right? But that’s not the best solution in some ways.”
“You can’t just leave them there?” Zeke asked.
She looked at him again. He actually seemed interested and maybe a bit concerned.
Well…he asked…
“There are a number of things that threaten them. They have natural predators, of course, like sharks and giant sea lions and fur seals. Occasionally they are caught up accidentally by fishermen too. Because they are air-breathers and have to come up for air while swimming, oil spills and pollution are a huge threat. But the two biggest dangers to them right now are climate change and invasive species introduced to the islands.
“Climate change is causing more El Niño events which affects their food apply. When their food supply diminishes, they will skip nesting and won’t hatch new penguins. When it’s really severe, some of the adults starve.
“Additionally, cats have been introduced to the islands and they will attack and kill the penguins. The other invasive species is mosquitoes that carry avian flu. An outbreak could wipe out what’s left of the penguins on the islands.”
Jill paused to take a breath, but found Zeke was still listening intently. He was watching her with a mix of fascination and surprise. Possibly she was telling him facts that he found surprising. But it was also possible he was surprised that anyone could just talk non-stop about penguins like this.
Well, if he wanted to hang out with her, he was going to have to be okay with that.
“The Galápagos Islands are the only place that these penguins exist indigenously. So fighting those threats on the islands is important, but they’re huge and it takes a long time to change any of that. Climate change alone is an almost overwhelming threat. So out of